ReutersAzerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has called on Russia to take blame for the Christmas Day plane crash that killed 38 people.
The plane is believed to have come under fire from Russian air defense systems as it attempted to land in Chechnya, before being diverted to Kazakhstan where it crashed.
On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to the Azerbaijani president for shooting down the plane in Russian airspace, but declined to accept responsibility.
Aliyev accused Moscow of initially “covering up” its involvement in the crash. While accepting Putin’s apology, he said Russia must “admit its guilt” and pay compensation.
The Azerbaijan Airlines plane was en route from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to the Chechen capital Grozny on December 25 when it is believed to have come under fire.
Flight J2-8243 was forced to divert from Chechnya and crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 passengers on board.
Most of the passengers on the flight came from Azerbaijan, with others from Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Aviation experts and others believe the plane’s GPS was compromised by electronic interference and it was subsequently damaged by shrapnel from Russian anti-aircraft missiles.
But Aliyev said that in the days after the incident, “Russian authorities presented versions (of events) about the explosion of a gas cylinder” that “clearly showed that the Russian side wants to hush up the matter,” according to a transcript of an interview with state media.
He also said that some in Russia had put forward the theory that the plane was hit by birds. Aliyev called both theories “foolish and dishonest.”
The Azerbaijani president acknowledged that the plane was shot down accidentally, but said that in the first three days after the crash “we heard only absurd versions from Russia.”
Baku made a number of demands to Moscow on Friday over the incident, of which only one – an apology – has so far been met.
On Saturday, Putin said the “tragic incident” occurred when Russian air defense systems intercepted Ukrainian drones and expressed his “deep and sincere condolences” to the victims’ families.
The Russian president admitted that the plane had repeatedly tried to land at Grozny airport in Chechnya.
However, at that time, the cities of Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz “were attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks,” Putin said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia must “stop spreading disinformation” and that the damage to the plane’s fuselage was “very reminiscent of an air defense missile attack.”
The Kremlin’s reading did not directly admit that the plane had been hit by Russian missiles.
Aliyev said Baku had demanded Russia “admit its guilt,” punish the guilty and pay compensation to Azerbaijan and the injured survivors of the crash.
Azerbaijan and Russia are allies. The Azerbaijani president said: “No one would have thought that in a country that is friendly to us, our plane would be fired upon from the ground.”
His remarks came as Azerbaijan paid tribute to the pilots and passengers of the crashed plane.
Three crew members – Captain Igor Kshnyakin, co-pilot Alezander Kalayaninov and flight attendant Hokuma Aliyeva – received special awards for landing the plane in such a way that 29 people survived, although this resulted in their own deaths.
