Stepanakert

Stepanakert / Khandendi ( formerly - darkometer rating : 3 -) The ex-"capital city" of the former internationally unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Apart from serving as a base from where to explore the region, Stepanakert used to offer the dark tourist a couple of small, idiosyncratic museums relating to the Karabakh war of the 1990s. It has to be assumed that the latter will all have disappeared (or maybe altered beyond recognition) since in September 2023 Azerbaijan took over the city and the entire region in its military offensive and the originally Armenian population was forced to flee. With this the city has also largely lost its appeal from a dark-tourism perspective; although it may well be that Azerbaijan will now add its own commodifications of its “victory”. But whether they should be supported is questionable. The first pioneering tourists are apparently already lured back – as they have been in Shushi/Şuşa even earlier, and that even under the dubious label of “black tourism” (a less common synonym for ‘dark tourism’). But see this note in which I distance myself and dark-tourism.com from such propagandistic activities, and also see this longer Blog post . Stepanakert has now been given its Azeri name again, which is Khankendi (or “ Xankəndi ” in Azeri spelling), but what exactly will happen with it is unclear. After the Armenians of Artsakh left (or: were ‘ethnically cleansed’) it was at first a complete ghost town . I can imagine, though, that the Azerbaijani government will be keen to repopulate the place, now with their own people, and will probably pump a lot of money into it as well. For the purposes of this website, however, it is no longer of the same interest it once was.