Russian side wants to cover up the issue.” The President of Azerbaijan has demanded apologies, an admission of guilt, punishment for those responsible, and compensation for the crash of an Embraer aircraft.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that Russia is responsible for the December 25 crash of an Azerbaijani Embraer aircraft traveling from Baku to Grozny.
“Firstly, the Russian side must apologize to Azerbaijan. Secondly, they must admit their guilt. Thirdly, those responsible must be punished, brought to criminal justice, and compensation must be paid to the Azerbaijani state, as well as to the affected passengers and crew members. These are our conditions. The first of them was fulfilled yesterday. I hope that our other conditions will also be met. All of these conditions are fair. There are no extraordinary demands or issues here; they are based on international practices and principles of normal human behavior,”
Aliyev said in an interview.
He noted that these conditions were communicated to the Russian side on December 27. However, the Azerbaijani leader mentioned that during the first three days, the country’s authorities “heard nothing from Russia except absurd versions.”
“One of the points that saddened and surprised us was that Russian official structures put forward versions about some kind of gas cylinder explosion. This clearly showed that the Russian side wants to cover up the issue, and, of course, this does no credit to anyone,”
he said.
Today, it was reported that Putin and Aliyev have already had a third phone conversation following the crash of the “Azerbaijan Airlines” aircraft. To recall, 38 people, including seven Russians, died in the aviation disaster. Ilham Aliyev stated that the aircraft was shot at from the ground while flying over Chechnya.
