Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said on Sunday that the Azerbaijani plane that crashed last week was shot down by Russia, albeit unintentionally, and criticized Moscow for trying to “cover up” the matter for days.
“We can say with absolute certainty that the plane was shot down by Russia. (…) We are not saying it happened intentionally, but it happened,” he told Azerbaijani state television.
Aliyev said the plane that crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday was struck from the ground over Russia and “made uncontrollable by electronic warfare.” Aliyev accused Russia of trying to “cover up” the issue for several days and said he was “angry and surprised” by the versions of events put forward by Russian officials.
“Unfortunately, in the first three days we heard nothing but crazy versions from Russia,” he said.
The crash killed 38 of the 67 people on board. The Kremlin said air defense systems fired near Grozny, the regional capital of Russia’s Chechen Republic, where the plane was trying to land to repel a Ukrainian drone attack.
Aliyev said Azerbaijan had made three demands to Russia in connection with the crash.
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“First, the Russian side must apologize to Azerbaijan. Secondly, it must admit its guilt. Third, punish the guilty, hold them criminally responsible and pay compensation to the Azerbaijani state and the injured passengers and crew members,” he said.
Aliyev noted that the first demand had “already been met” when Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to him on Saturday. Putin called the crash a “tragic incident” but stopped short of acknowledging Moscow’s responsibility.
He said an investigation into the crash was ongoing and that “the final version (of events) will be known after the black boxes are opened.”
He noted that Azerbaijan has always been “in favor of the investigation of the crash by a group of international experts” and has “categorically rejected” Russia’s proposal that the Interstate Aviation Committee, which oversees civil aviation in the Commonwealth of Independent States, investigate .
“It is no secret that this organization consists mainly of Russian officials and is led by Russian citizens. The factors of objectivity could not be fully guaranteed here,” Aliyev said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media on Sunday that Putin had spoken to Aliyev by phone again, but did not provide details of the conversation.
The Kremlin also said a joint investigation by Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan was underway at the crash site near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. The plane was en route from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny when it veered toward Kazakhstan, hundreds of kilometers over the Caspian Sea from its intended destination, and crashed while attempting to land.
Passengers and crew members who survived the crash told Azerbaijani media they heard loud noises inside the plane as it circled over Grozny.
Dmitry Yadrov, head of Russia’s civil aviation agency Rosaviatsia, said on Friday that Ukrainian drones targeted the city as the plane prepared to land in Grozny in thick fog, prompting authorities to close the area to air traffic.
The crash is the second fatal civil aviation accident linked to fighting in Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a Russian surface-to-air missile in 2014, killing all 298 people on board, as it flew over territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.
Russia denied responsibility, but a Dutch court in 2022 convicted two Russians and a pro-Russian Ukrainian for their roles in shooting down the plane carrying an air defense system that had been brought to Ukraine from a Russian military base.
&Copy 2024 The Canadian Press
