In meetings with the relatives of the deceased and survivors, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev demanded punishment for those responsible for the crash of the airline AZAL plane, which was on the Baku–Grozny flight and crashed near Kazakhstan's Aktau.
«I can confidently say that the blame for the fact that Azerbaijani citizens died in this disaster lies with the representatives of the Russian Federation. And we demand justice, we demand punishment for the guilty, we demand full transparency and humane behavior», — stated Aliyev.
He also mentioned the ongoing decoding of the black boxes. Preliminary results will be known soon, and «everything will fall into place». Aliyev clarified that Russia was not allowed to participate in the joint decoding of the black boxes because the country did not make attempts at an objective investigation of the tragedy. According to the President of Azerbaijan, «attempts to conceal the circumstances of the incident and present it as a result of a collision with «birds» or a «gas cylinder» raised serious doubts about the objectivity of the investigation».
Furthermore, Aliyev stated that the disaster could have been avoided if the Chechen authorities had timely closed the airspace, ground services acted in accordance with the rules, and Russian military and civilian services had proper coordination. According to him, the operation «carpet» in Grozny, meaning the closure of the airspace, was announced after the liner was shot down from the ground.
«Attempts by Russian state bodies to hush up the incident and defend absurd versions cause us simultaneous surprise, regret, and justified indignation», — noted Aliyev.
On December 25, an Embraer plane of the airline Azerbaijan Airlines, flying from Baku to Grozny, crashed near Aktau. On board were 67 people, including five crew members. Among them were 42 citizens of Azerbaijan, 16 of Russia, 6 of Kazakhstan, and 3 of Kyrgyzstan. 38 people died.
Photo: azamat_sarsenbayev