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Advocating for the Correct Naming of Stepanakert to Khankendi on Wikipedia

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Dear members of the discussion, I write to address the ongoing debate surrounding the appropriate legal name of the city currently listed as "Stepanakert" on Wikipedia. It is crucial to acknowledge the historical, legal, and cultural foundations that support renaming this city to its rightful name, Khankendi. Below, I outline the core arguments in favor of this correction:

Historical Accuracy: The city's original name, Khankendi, dates back centuries, long before the Soviet era when the name was altered to "Stepanakert." Khankendi reflects the city's authentic roots, underscoring its significance as part of the cultural and historical heritage of the region. Recognizing Khankendi is a step towards respecting documented history rather than perpetuating Soviet-era impositions.

Legal Grounds: Internationally recognized legal frameworks uphold Azerbaijan's sovereignty over the region, as reaffirmed by multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions and numerous international organizations. As the city is an integral part of Azerbaijan, it is appropriate and legally consistent to reflect the name endorsed by the Azerbaijani government—Khankendi.

Neutrality and Credibility: Wikipedia aims to maintain a neutral point of view while reflecting accurate and verifiable information. Adopting Khankendi as the official name ensures that Wikipedia adheres to its commitment to reliability and impartiality, avoiding politically biased narratives. Respect for Sovereignty: The continued use of "Stepanakert" disregards the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, a principle widely recognized by international law. It is essential to use names that align with the legal and geopolitical realities of the region.

Consensus Among Reliable Sources: Authoritative sources, including government records, maps, and international documentation, consistently use Khankendi to refer to the city. Reflecting this name on Wikipedia would align the platform with credible, up-to-date references.

Public Expectations: The citizens of Azerbaijan and many supporters of historical justice strongly advocate for the restoration of Khankendi as the city's name. Renaming the city in Wikipedia is not only legally and historically correct but also reflects the aspirations of those who seek to preserve the region's authentic identity.

In conclusion, renaming the city from "Stepanakert" to "Khankendi" on Wikipedia is not only a correction of historical and legal inaccuracies but also a necessary step to uphold the platform's credibility and impartiality. I urge all participants in this discussion to consider these points and support the rightful restoration of the city's name to Khankendi.

Thank you for your attention and thoughtful consideration.

And please, be neutral guys :) So, I do not want someone to do racism. Be neutral and fair! 37.61.112.22 (talk) 20:26, 17 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I think ultimately it comes down to what is now most commonly used in English language sources and conversation, and I think Khankendi has now probably overtaken Stepanakert. I'm not sure of many sources still using Stepanakert Jimjom (talk) 22:46, 19 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Dear Jimjom, I would like to add to your thoughts. These days, "stepanakert" is not and cannot be used in the world media or world politics. The use of this expression anywhere today is considered vandalism (you can only and MAYBE come across this expression in media that tend to use this expression). Khankendi is one of the cities of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Khankendi University operates there. I read the opinions of some people in this discussion board, they simply do not want the real name of this city to be restored in Wikipedia by any means. This is based on their personal interests. In short,! Today, only Khankendi is used in the international community, using any other expression leads to vandalism, disrespect for the Republic of Azerbaijan, and many other violations of law Jabeerdi (talk) 08:22, 20 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Someone mentioned Allahabad vs Prayagraj above, where Allahabad is still used much more in English-language sources ... yet the name change was swift. Thus it would seem the name usage isn't really the most important factor, isn't it? 119.74.188.226 (talk) 15:48, 14 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 22 January 2025

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Change the name "Stepanakert" to "Khankendi" in the article. 188.253.217.12 (talk) 09:51, 22 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done: Duplicate of existing talkpage discussion. CMD (talk) 09:57, 22 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 16 March 2025

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Stepanakert → Khankendi – per WP:COMMONNAME, official name, sources, and maps. Tons of sources mention it as "Khankendi". Here are some sources: 1, and 2. Google maps also shows Khankendi here instead of Stepanakert. On a side note, Nagorno-Karabakh does not exist anymore. 🗽Freedoxm🗽(talk • contribs) 06:14, 16 March 2025 (UTC) — Relisting. Vanderwaalforces (talk) 11:01, 24 March 2025 (UTC) — Relisting. Reading Beans, Duke of Rivia 12:15, 1 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  • Support. This is the logical move at this point. Previous RMs might have been a bit premature, but it's been 1.5 years. Now, when searching up both city names on Google, there is a noticeable preference for "Khankendi" in sources. Paul Vaurie (talk) 01:09, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support. It should have been done a long time ago. Not only this city, all localities of Karabakh (e.g. Martuni to Khojavend, Mardakert to Aghdara) need to be moved as per administrative division of Azerbaijan. Zohrab Javad (talk) 01:47, 19 March 2025 (UTC) – Restricted topic, can not participate in this discussion. Vanezi (talk) 04:01, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support Think it's necessary to do so as sources have clearly switched over Chessrat (talk, contributions) 06:04, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose per WP:AT/WP:COMMONNAME, the city has been called Stepanakert by the authorities controlling it during the entire Soviet and post-Soviet period until 2023. Search engine tests give far higher results for Stepanakert [1] – 1 020 000, than Khankendi [2] – 190 000, and numerous journalistic sources have utilized the name Stepanakert either alone or together with Khankendi in the past year since the Azerbaijani takeover and emptying of the city of its Armenian population [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8] AntonSamuel (talk) 09:47, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Note that search results were not the main factors in consideration when Allahabad was renamed to Prayagraj, or when Astana was initially renamed to Nur-Sultan, or when Swaziland was renamed to Eswatini, where all the latter names had lower ngram counts. Consider whether the factors that renamed those articles apply here. 128.106.142.123 (talk) 06:37, 9 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose per AntonSamuel. Generally, WP:COMMONNAME trumps due to its accessibility. If media and academia continue to use Stepanakert, at least more predominantly from a numerical/search-result POV, that ought to be reflected in the article name for the sake of consistency and closeness to the prevalent name of the city. – Olympian loquere 11:58, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose It hasn't been 2 years since the Azerbaijani offensive, and apparently some people are ready to rename the article even though Stepanakert has been the common name still and throughout all of Nagorno-Karabakh existence, it's been the official name since Soviet times. WP:COMMONNAME still supports Stepanakert, and Wikipedia has it's own ruels for naming articles such as the common name. Vanezi (talk) 04:08, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Two years is quite a long time. There have been a plethora of articles about the city since then. It is actually not that relevant if the city has been called "Stepanakert" since Soviet times if sources show a preference for "Khankendi" since 2023. See WP:NAMECHANGES, which states exactly what I just outlined. Paul Vaurie (talk) 05:48, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support. The current title is not in line with WP:MODERNPLACENAME. The COMMONNAME argument is weak in this case, as most sources using "Stepanakert" are now outdated. Recent sources tend to prefer Khankendi, sometimes mentioning Stepanakert as a former name. Furthermore, per WP:COMMONNAME, "Ambiguous or inaccurate names for the article subject, as determined in reliable sources, are often avoided even though they may be more frequently used by reliable sources. Neutrality is also considered". Grandmaster 09:47, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    WP:COMMONNAME arguments and policy itself is generally the strongest when determining Wikipedia article titles, and trying to discredit COMMONNAME based on recentism is in itself a weak argument. Vanezi (talk) 10:42, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Another thought- as a rule I don't tend to support using different names of a city for different periods of its history, and it is uncommon on Wikipedia for it to be done– but given the complete and total destruction of the Armenian history, with the demolition of all notable Armenian buildings etc, I wonder if it might be worth considering repurposing this article to be a historic article focused on the pre-2023 period and making a new Khankendi article for the post-2023 period of the city being under Azerbaijani control. For the last two years this article has been getting increasingly outdated thanks to one editor consistently reverting most attempts to update the article in light of the 2023 ethnic cleansing, with the entire "Culture and Economy" section still being solely historic information only relevant pre-2023. If this article is not going to be updated in light of events, perhaps it needs to be formatted as a historic article like Königsberg. Chessrat (talk, contributions) 14:25, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It seems that you're referring to the article called Stepanakert in the Republic of Artsakh. This article can be updated to represent the current Khankendi. Paul Vaurie (talk) 05:36, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Also, Khankendi was the official name of the city in the Russian empire. So if we make a new Khankendi article, it will need to cover different historical periods, not just events after 2023. Grandmaster 09:15, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Stepanakert → Khankendi and Stepanakert in the Republic of Artsakh → Stepanakert, per Chessrat. Glide08 (talk) 14:58, 27 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose and suggest speedy close. There have already been 4 previous move request/suggestions within less than a year,[9][10][11][12] and the OP has given no new evidence to suggest the common name has changed, making this request very low effort. TripAdvisor is not a reliable source and Aljazeera is neither reliable nor neutral especially for this topic; it has referred to the Armenian genocide in scare quotes and promoted genocide denial revisionism for years.[13][14] More recent and reliable sources such as OC Media[15] (article is even written by an Azeri journalist) and Council on Foreign Relations[16] both refer to the name as Stepanakert. I suggest that not only this request be speedily closed, but also any future similar requests be speedily closed as well unless they can provide both substantial and new evidence suggesting a change of common name. There is no need to have this same discussion every few months whenever a new editor who did not review any of the previous discussions first stops by. KhndzorUtogh (talk) 07:33, 31 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    There's no speedy close unless WP:SNOW is approaching. 🗽Freedoxm🗽(talk · contribs) 16:38, 31 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support I previously opposed the change but Khankendi is now the common name for the current city under Azeri control. It is no longer a ghost town and it is becoming increasingly strange to refer to a city which is now entirely Azeri (despite its Armenian past) by its Armenian name. Compare it with Antakya and İzmir which, despite their Greek past, are now rarely referred to with their Greek names. De wafelenbak (talk) 21:50, 1 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support if a request is brought up 4 times within less than year, it suggests the title of the article needs to be updated. As I mentioned in the previous discussions, most of the other wiki projects have already renamed the article, including French and Russian. Khankendi was the official name of the town until 1923 and has been since 1991, despite the fact that the town was referred to as Stepanakert in line to the other Soviet place names due to the previously ongoing issues over the territory. Sources might use both versions for readers, but Khankendi is ubiquitous too. Taking into consideration that Stepanakert in the Republic of Artsakh article already exists, renaming the article makes a perfect sense. — Toghrul R (t) 14:16, 3 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose per WP:AT/WP:COMMONNAME. Archives908 (talk) 14:28, 6 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Expecting a no consensus close. 🗽Freedoxm🗽(talk · contribs) 17:41, 6 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Weak oppose per WP:COMMONNAME. I do not really see much evidence that this has changed since the last RM. Although the city was renamed, it seems RS are still using "Stepanakert" or mentioning both names, not just "Khankendi". See for example this. When it becomes clear that most RS have switched to consistently referring to the city as "Khankendi", then it would be appropriate to move the article, but at the moment, it still seems a bit too soon. Admittedly, there is not a lot of English-language coverage on this since 2023. Mellk (talk) 21:16, 8 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support. I agree with the comment above that news coverage has become quite limited since 2024 but it seems like "Khankendi" is slowly gaining ground. A Google News search returns 120 results for "Khankendi" and 77 results for "Stepanakert" in articles from April 2024 onward (unsurprisingly, the vast majority of these are from Azerbaijani or Armenian outlets respectively). Parishan (talk) 02:24, 20 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Major changes, removal of content and removal of Armenian name in the introduction/infobox

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@Freedoxm: @Chessrat: Please do not make major changes to the article's content, remove information or remove/reorganize the Armenian name from the introduction and infobox without discussion on the talk page first. These are sensitive issues and less than two years have passed since the entire Armenian population of the city was forced to flee. AntonSamuel (talk) 09:56, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The issue with this article is that, as currently written, it is full of outdated content. Things like a list of sister cities from prior to the 2023 genocide should not be located outside of the History section of the article. I've tried on multiple occasions to rewrite the article such that the historical information is appropriately located in the history section, but every time it's been reverted to some form of the increasingly outdated pre-2023 status quo. Chessrat (talk, contributions) 16:04, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
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On the fourth paragraph of the "First Nagorno-Karabakh War and Armenian control" section, the link for the "capture of Shusha" part refers to the 2020 capture of Sucha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Shusha_(2020), when it should refer to the 1992 battle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Shusha_(1992). Can someone edit it to the correct link ? Thank you. Chemy Duck (talk) 11:34, 14 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Done, will convert the original redirect to a dab too. CMD (talk) 13:09, 14 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Colonialisation Not resetlement

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Fix this. 2A02:810D:808E:7500:4041:A660:E742:1A82 (talk) 21:10, 18 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

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