On August 1, Azerbaijani authorities demolished a monument to the painter Ivan Aivazovsky in Khankendi (Stepanakert in Armenian), igniting a fierce media and political clash between Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia over cultural heritage and territorial names in the Karabakh region.

The Karabakh Tourism and Culture Development Agency, cited by Sputnik Armenia, claimed the monument was removed by "Azerbaijani occupation authorities" and called the demolition "further evidence of the policy of destroying the Armenian cultural presence in Karabakh." Salavat Shcherbakov, the Russian artist who created the monument, described the act as "vandalism" and a "blind and hopeless political mistake," expressing hope that the sculpture could be retrieved through negotiations.

The incident triggered a war of words in Russian and Azerbaijani media. Azerbaijani outlets praised the Russian state news agency TASS for revising a headline to remove the term "Nagorno-Karabakh" and replace it with "Karabakh." In protest of TASS continuing to use the name "Stepanakert," some Azerbaijani media began referring to Russian cities by their historical names, such as "Königsberg" for Kaliningrad. In turn, the Russian outlet Readovka sarcastically noted that Baku might soon prefer its “own historical Armenian name”, "Baghavan." Azerbaijan's Report News Agency condemned Russian media for distorting Azerbaijani toponyms, arguing the monument was politically motivated and that Aivazovsky, a maritime painter, had no historical connection to the landlocked region.

The dispute escalated to include officials. Sergey Aksyonov, the head of occupied Crimea, condemned the demolition and offered to receive and restore the damaged monument. Konstantin Zatulin, a senior Russian Duma official, accused Azerbaijan of trying to dictate terms and expel Russia from the South Caucasus to advance a "Greater Turan" agenda with Turkey. In response, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Aykhan Hajizada asserted the monument had been "illegally installed" and its removal was "logical, legitimate, and fully in line with the law." He rejected accusations of canceling Russian culture and demanded an apology from TASS for using the name "Stepanakert," which he noted honors a Bolshevik leader accused of massacres against Azerbaijanis. Other Azerbaijani officials, including MPs Rasim Musabayov and Vasif Gafarov, sharply criticized Zatulin and other Russian figures, accusing them of hypocrisy and instigating separatism.