Stepanakert (Armenian: Ստեփանակերտ Stepanakert) or Khankendi (Azerbaijani: Xankəndi), originally called Vararakn (Armenian: Վարարակն), is the capital and the largest city of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a de facto independent republic. According to the 2005 official census, the population of Stepanakert is 49,986.

History

Founding and Soviet era

According to medieval Armenian sources, the settlement was first mentioned as Vararakn (Վարարակն, meaning "rapid spring" in Armenian), a name that remained in use until 1847, when it was renamed Khankendi. Azerbaijani sources generally say that the settlement was founded in the late eighteenth century by a Karabakh khan, and was thus called Khankendi (Turkic for "the khan's village").

In 1923 Khankendi was renamed Stepanakert by the Soviet government to honor Stepan Shahumyan, ethnic Armenian leader of the 26 Baku Commissars, and, after the Shusha pogrom had resulted in major destruction at Shusha, the former regional capital, Stepanakert was made the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO). In time, Stepanakert grew to become the region's most important city (a status it received in 1940). Its population rose from 10,459 in 1939 to 33,000 in 1978.