This article was originally published in Russian
The Azerbaijani president says the plane “was shot down by accident” and that Russia sought to “cover up the problem.”
ADVERTISEMENT
After speaking by telephone with Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spoke in an interview on state television channel AZTV about the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane.
“We have clearly conveyed our demands to the Russian side,” he said. “First, Russia must apologize to Azerbaijan. Second, it must admit its guilt. Third, punish the guilty, bring them to justice.” to court and pay compensation both to the State and to the injured passengers and crew. These are our conditions. The first of these has already been fulfilled yesterday. I hope that the other demands will also be met. .”
If Vladimir Putin apologized for “the tragic incident” intervened in Russian airspace, admitting that Russian air defense was in action at the time of the events, he has not yet recognized Russia's responsibility.
Ilham Alyiev stressed that the plane had not been “killed voluntarily”.
“Of course, our plane was not shot down intentionally. Admitting guilt, apologizing in time to Azerbaijan, which is considered a friendly country, and informing the public about it – these are all measures and steps which had to be taken”demanded the Azerbaijani president.
“Of course, the final version will be known after the opening of the black boxes,” he continued. “But the first versions are sufficiently substantiated and based on facts. And the facts are that the Azerbaijani civil plane was damaged from the outside on the territory of Russia, near the city of Grozny, and it almost lost control. We also know that our plane was made uncontrollable by means of electronic warfare. This is how the plane was first damaged. Then following the shots fired from the ground, the tail. the plane has was also seriously damaged.
For Ilham Alyiev, “One of the things that saddened and surprised us was that Russian official bodies proposed versions about the explosion of a gas cylinder.” Adding: “Unfortunately, in the first three days we only heard absurd versions from Russia.”
Vladimir Putin explained that Ukrainian drones attacked the capital of Chechnya, as well as Vladikavkaz and Mozdok as the Baku-Grozny flight was preparing to land, and that “Russian air defenses had repelled these attacks.”
