Four days after the deadly crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev points the finger directly at Russia.
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Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashes in Kazakhstan, Russia suspected
Azerbaijan accuses Russia. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said this Sunday that the various versions of the facts put forward by Moscow after the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane which crashed Wednesday in Kazakhstan “clearly show that the Russian side wanted to cover up the affair”.
“The facts are that the Azerbaijani civil plane was damaged from the outside over Russian territory (…) the tail of the plane was seriously damaged by fire from the ground”declared the leader in a television interview, reported by the Azertag news agency. He also indicated that the plane had been returned “uncontrollable” by military means of electronic jamming.
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Demanding a public apology from Moscow, Ilham Aliev said that the various versions of the facts put forward by Russia after the crash “clearly show that the Russian side wanted to cover up the affair”. “Admitting (one’s) guilt, issuing a timely apology to Azerbaijan, which is considered a friendly country, and informing the public about it, these are all measures and steps that should have been taken”he added on national television
Vladimir Putin apologized on Saturday, but refused to say clearly whether the Azerbaijan Airlines plane had been hit by a Russian missile, even though anti-aircraft defenses were in action as it tried to land in Grozny , in Russia. He was content to deplore that “this tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace”the Kremlin reported.
During a telephone conversation on Saturday with his Azerbaijani counterpart, the Russian president explained that “Azerbaijani airliner tried several times to land at Grozny airport”the capital of Chechnya, its destination, in the Russian Caucasus.
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