Azerbaijan's Latest Demand Fulfilled by Russia

Following Baku's harsh reaction, Russia's official news agency, TASS, has replaced the term Stepanakert with Nagorno-Karabakh. However, this change is unacceptable to Azerbaijan. This was stated in a statement released by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“First, the Russian state, which recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and its official news agency, TASS, have violated international law by naming the city of Khankendi with an invented title. Instead of rectifying the situation, they have allowed a new distortion by using a term that no longer exists and has lost its legal status. The fact that the TASS agency is demonstrating a stance contrary to Azerbaijan's territorial integrity with such changes means that it is acting directly as a tool of information warfare. International news agencies, particularly state institutions like TASS, should exhibit an objective and law-based approach instead of manipulating official names and statuses for geopolitical interests. Otherwise, such behavior allows media outlets to be perceived as instruments of diversion rather than information dissemination,” the statement reads.

After this announcement, the news agency corrected its report titled “The Ayvazovsky Monument was Destroyed in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh,” finally mentioning the awaited term Khankendi by Baku.

It is noteworthy that earlier reports indicated that Azerbaijan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs threatened to take action against the TASS news agency operating in their country, prompting the agency to change the headline of the published news article about Stepanakert.