Baku. January 6th. INTERFAX - President Ilham Aliyev has said that Azerbaijan demands punishment for those responsible for the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines CJSC (AZAL) flight from Baku to Grozny, which crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan.
"I can say with confidence that the representatives of the Russian Federation are to blame for the fact that Azerbaijani citizens died in this disaster. And we demand justice, we demand the punishment of those responsible, we demand full transparency and human behavior," Aliyev said on Monday at a meeting with family members of the crew members killed in the plane crash and the surviving flight attendants.
According to him, Operation carpet in Grozny, which means the closure of airspace, was announced after the airliner was shot down from the ground.
"Attempts by Russian government agencies to hush up the incident and defend ridiculous versions cause us surprise, regret and just indignation at the same time," the president noted.
The Head of State stressed that "if timely measures had been taken to close the airspace over the city of Grozny, ground handling rules had been followed and coordination between the armed forces and the civil services of the Russian Federation had been established, this tragedy could have been avoided."
According to him, the process of decrypting the black boxes is underway.
"I am sure that in the near future we will find out the preliminary result, and everything will fall into place, the whole picture of the tragedy will be known. And this, of course, will be an important moment in the full investigation of this tragedy and the punishment of those responsible for it," the head of state added.
On December 25, an Embraer aircraft operated by Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL), en route from Baku to Grozny, crashed near Aktau. There were 67 people on board, including five crew members. Of these, 42 are citizens of Azerbaijan, 16 are citizens of Russia, 6 are citizens of Kazakhstan, and 3 are citizens of Kyrgyzstan. 38 people died.
On December 29, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that on December 27, Azerbaijan handed over three demands to the Russian side in connection with the crash of the Azerbaijani AZAL airliner, one of which has already been fulfilled by the Russian side.
"We have clearly expressed our demands to the Russian side, they were officially handed over on December 27. What are they? First of all, the Russian side should apologize to Azerbaijan. Secondly, admit your guilt. Thirdly, the perpetrators must be punished, brought to criminal responsibility, and the damage to the Azerbaijani state, as well as to the injured passengers and crew members, must be compensated. These are our conditions. The first of these conditions was met yesterday," Aliyev said in an interview with the state-run AzTV channel.
He expressed hope that other conditions of the Azerbaijani side will be fulfilled.
Aliev added that some issues related to the plane crash remain open. "After the black boxes are opened and when we receive more detailed information, all the details will come out and many points that still raise questions will be clarified. For example, why couldn't the plane land in the city of Grozny? To what extent did electronic warfare affect the control of the aircraft? How effective were the effects of an air strike and an explosion next to the plane? Because I should also note that attempts to deny this obvious fact and disguise it in this case are both absurd and stupid," the Azerbaijani president said.
