Travel Guide Stepanakert

Stepanakert, or Khankend in Turkic-Azeri, is a small, Soviet-built city on a vast plateau surrounded by medium-sized forested mountains. An obscure capital of the autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a remote province of Azerbaijan during the Soviet era, it has been promoted to the rank of capital of the Republic of Artsakh, a vocation displayed since 1967 by the emblematic monument We are our mountains(Menk enk mer sarére) which stands on a hill at the northeast entrance to the city, immortalizing in red tuff the stylized faces of a peasant couple, Dadik and Papik, which has become the symbol of Armenian Karabagh. To this symbol, another has been added, a huge 50 m high steel cross, which has been rising since 2017 on a hill in the city, affirming its attachment to Christianity, which was also expressed in 2019 with the inauguration of a vast cathedral. A Christian identity asserted with all the more force as Azerbaijan, winner of the last war in the fall of 2020, threatens to destroy the Armenian heritage that has fallen under its control, including the churches of Shushi, one of which was completely razed by Azeri forces.A territory within reach of the capital. From Stepanakert, which has the most developed reception infrastructures, one can travel around the region to visit the main sites, such as Gandzassar and Dadivank (now under Azeri control), about 40 km to the north, especially since the roads are much more practicable. The Republic of Artsakh itself covers 4,400 km², but part of its territory, the Shushi and Hadrut regions, was amputated after the 2020 defeat by Azerbaijan