Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on Sunday blasted Russia for attempting to “hush up” its role in the crash of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight J2-8243, which crash-landed in Aktau, Kazakhstan, on Christmas Day, killing 38 of its 67 passengers and crew.
“We can say with complete clarity that the plane was shot down by Russia,” Aliyev declared in an interview with Azeri state television.
“We are not saying that it was done intentionally, but it was done,” he said.
Russian officials have suggested the plane was struck by birds, but few aviation experts outside of Moscow accepted that explanation for the crash.
Ukrainian officials were quick to point out the plane, which was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to the Chechen capital of Grozny, passed through an area where Russian forces were attempting to shoot down Ukrainian drones.
A considerable amount of visual evidence from the crash, and the testimony of survivors, pointed towards bullets or shrapnel from a surface-to-air missile penetrating the fuselage.
Both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan were initially reluctant to call the Russians out for lying, as both countries have been seeking to cultivate stronger diplomatic and economic ties with Russia – but within a few days of the crash, Azeri officials were muttering anonymously to reporters that the evidence for Russia shooting down the plane was overwhelming.
Aliev said on Sunday it was clear that Flight J2-8243 “suffered external damage” from surface-to-air weapons over Russia and “was … rendered uncontrollable by electronic warfare,” which could be one reason the pilot flew across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan before attempting an emergency landing.
Azerbaijan’s president said he was “upset and surprised” by Russian officials spreading “delirious versions” of the plane crash for several days, instead of accepting responsibility for Russia’s role in the tragedy.
“It openly showed that the Russian side wants to hush up the issue, and this, of course, reflects no honor on anyone,” he said.
On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin “offered his apologies” for “the tragic incident” in Russian airspace during a phone call with Aliyev. However, Putin did not accept responsibility for any aspect of the crash, which apparently angered Azerbaijan’s president.
Aliyev said he had three demands for Putin: “First, the Russian side must apologize to Azerbaijan. Second, it must admit its guilt. Third, punish the guilty, bring them to criminal responsibility and pay compensation to the Azerbaijani state, the injured passengers and crew members.”
Aliyev said Putin “fulfilled” the first demand during his phone call on Sunday, but he still wanted the admission of guilt and a pledge to “punish the guilty,” which would presumably be the Russian field commanders who allowed the passenger jet to come under attack.
Aliyev has ordered flight operations suspended to seven Russian cities since the attack, in addition to blocking flights from three Russian cities to Azerbaijan.
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