Ilham Aliyev accuses Russia of shooting at the Azerbaijan Airlines plane and trying to cover up the cause of the disaster.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has called on Russia to “admit its guilt” over the accidental shooting down of an Azerbaijani airliner that killed 38 people and injured 29.
Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8432 crashed near the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday en route to Grozny, the capital of the Chechnya region in southern Russia.
“We can say with complete clarity that the plane was shot down by Russia,” Aliyev said on Azerbaijani state television on Sunday. “We’re not saying it was intentional, but it was.”
He explained that the plane was hit by ground fire over Russia and “rendered uncontrollable by electronic warfare,” forcing it off course before attempting an emergency landing and crashing. The Kremlin had originally said the crash occurred after the Embraer 190 plane hit a flock of birds, but more and more evidence suspected that an anti-aircraft missile was the cause.
Aliyev accused Russia of trying to “cover up” the issue for several days and said he was “angry and surprised” by Russian officials’ contradictory accounts. “Unfortunately, in the first three days we heard nothing but insane versions from Russia,” he said.
Last week, a Kazakh aviation safety expert told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity that “no bird can ever cause such damage.” “It is absurd and criminal to claim such a thing,” said the expert.
Amid the backlash, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday apologized to Aliyev for the “tragic incident” in Russian airspace and said Russian air defenses had attacked Ukrainian attack drones.
A Kremlin statement did not say that Russia shot down the plane, but simply noted that a criminal case had been opened.
Aliyev called on Moscow to publicly apologize to his country and said Baku made official “demands” to Russia two days ago.
“First, the Russian side must apologize to Azerbaijan. Secondly, it must admit its guilt. Thirdly, those responsible must be punished, held accountable and compensation paid to the Azerbaijani state and to the injured passengers and crew members. These are our conditions,” he said, adding that the first demand had already been met with Putin’s apology.
Putin and Aliyev spoke by phone again on Sunday, the Kremlin said, without giving details. The The Kremlin has already announced a joint investigation into the crash with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
