President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan is not satisfied with the tacit apology he received from his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, regarding the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passage jet last week. The Azerbaijani leader on Sunday directly blamed Russia for the crash, calling on Moscow to accept responsibility and offer compensation to victims
Putin offered an apology, but Aliyev said in an interview published by the Azertac news agency that it was not sufficient to preserve the friendly relations between the two countries.
The Azerbaijan Airlines plane was traveling from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny in southern Russia on Wednesday, but was diverted from its path after encountering interference with its navigation systems and impact with external objects, according to Azerbaijan’s government. The plane crashed in Kazakhstan soon after, resulting in the deaths of 38 of the 67 people on board, more than half of them Azerbaijani citizens.
Azerbaijani and U.S. officials, as well as international aviation experts, had said they believed that the plane was most likely shot down by a Russian air defense missile. Moscow, however, has not admitted responsibility and, in his apology, Putin did not take responsibility.
“We can clearly say today that the plane was shot down by Russia,” Aliyev said in the interview, in what can be seen as a direct rebuke to the Kremlin.
“We have clearly expressed our demands to the Russian side,” said President Ilham Aliyev in the interview, saying that Azerbaijan officially conveyed those demands on Friday.
“First, the Russian side must apologize to Azerbaijan. Second, it must acknowledge its guilt. Third, those responsible must be punished, brought to criminal responsibility, and compensation must be paid to the Azerbaijani state, as well as to the injured passengers and crew members,” Aliyev added.
Aliyev added that Moscow had met only the first condition thus far.
“I hope the other conditions will also be accepted. All these demands are fair. There are no extraordinary requests or issues here; all of this is based on international experience and normal human conduct,” Aliyev emphasized.
When Azerbaijan shot down a Russian military helicopter over Armenia’s airspace during the 2020 Artsakh War, Baku apologized and offered compensation for the victims. Presumably, Aliyev is using that incident as precedent to ask Moscow for compensation.
