Paul Goble
Staunton, Aug. 2 – On July 31, TASS, the Russian government news agency, referred to the main city in Karabakh by the name its Armenian occupiers used, Stepanakert, rather than the name Azerbaijanis used both before and after that occupation, Khankendi. Baku demanded an apology, and TASS changed the reference. But that left people on both sides angry.
Some Azerbaijanis insisted that if Moscow was going to use names this way, then Baku should feel free to call the Volga River Itil, Orenburg Orinbur, and Kaliningrad Koenigsberg; and some Russians responded that Moscow should not back down but use the names it prefers and punish Baku for its position.
On the one hand, this is the latest sign of the deterioration of relations between Baku and Moscow since the shooting down of an Azerbaijani airplane by the Russians at the end of last year and the killing of ethnic Azerbaijanis in the course of being detained by Russian police in Yekaterinburg last month.
But on the other, it is another indication of how sensitive names are for all concerned and how using names that one side doesn’t like can easily trigger a response from the other – and one that can set off a veritable war between them if cooler heads don’t prevail and both sides gradually back away from a hard line.
On this exchange, see themoscowtimes.com/2025/08/01/azerbaijan-threatens-russian-state-media-over-use-of-karabakh-capitals-armenian-name-a90063, agents.media/tass-chastichno-vypolnil-ultimatum-baku-z-blogery-negoduyut/, meduza.io/feature/2025/08/01/tass-nazval-glavnyy-gorod-karabaha-stepanakertom-a-ne-hankendi-v-otvet-v-azerbaydzhane-stali-nazyvat-kaliningrad-kenigsbergom and svpressa.ru/politic/article/475472/.
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