Azerbaijani President Ilham On Sunday, Aliyev accused Moscow of trying to cover up the cause of the fatal plane crash of AZAL, which occurred this week. The president said Russia “accidentally shot down” the plane and that’s why called on Moscow to accept “responsibility” for the disasterwrites TASR according to an AFP report.
Aliyev expressed his regret over the actions of Russia, which, according to him, “proposes theories” with the clear aim of “hushing up” the whole matter. “Of course, our plane was hit by accident and we cannot talk about a deliberate act of terrorism,” the president specified. “However, as part of the measures, they should have admitted their guilt, apologized in time to Azerbaijan, which they consider a friendly country, and informed the public about it,” Aliyev emphasized according to AFP.
Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized for the accident on Saturday and clarified that air defenses were active at the time of the flight. However, he did not immediately say that the plane was hit by a Russian missile. “The fact is that an Azerbaijani civilian plane was damaged from outside over Russian territory, near the (Chechen) city of Grozny,” Aliyev said, according to the state-run Azertag news agency. “We also know that our plane lost control due to electronic defense systems,” he added.
The AZAL Embraer 190 aircraft was headed from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the Chechen capital Grozny on December 25. During the flight, it deviated from the planned route and crashed while trying to land in the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan, on the opposite side of the Caspian Sea. There were 67 people on board, including five crew members. 38 people lost their lives.
