Ilham Aliyev: Russia Should Accept Full Responsibility for the Downing of the Azerbaijani Plane

The President of Azerbaijan has called for Russia to fully accept responsibility for the recent downing of an Azerbaijani Airlines plane in Kazakhstan and emphasized the need to punish those responsible for the incident. Ilham Aliyev stated that the passenger plane was unintentionally shot down by Russia and criticized Moscow for attempting to 'cover up' this action. On Sunday, January 9, in an interview with the state television of Azerbaijan, he declared that it can be said with 'complete clarity' that the plane was downed by Russia. He added, 'We do not say this was intentional, but it happened.' The Azerbaijani President referred to the passenger plane that crashed last Wednesday in Kazakhstan, reporting that the aircraft was targeted by a surface-to-air missile in Russian airspace and became 'uncontrollable' due to Russia's use of 'uncontrollable' electronic warfare. Aliyev accused Moscow of trying to cover up the incident for several days and expressed that he was 'upset and surprised' by the actions of Russian officials. He stated, 'Unfortunately, in the first three days (after the incident), we heard nothing from Russia except nonsense.' Putin, without mentioning Russia's role, apologized for the downing of the Azerbaijani plane. The 'Embraer' passenger plane of Azerbaijan crashed on January 5 near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, resulting in the deaths of 38 out of 67 passengers. The destination of this aircraft was Grozny in Chechnya, and Vladimir Putin announced on January 8 that Russian air defense systems were activated to counter a drone attack from Ukraine in that city. In his recent conversation, Putin apologized to Ilham Aliyev but refrained from confirming that Russia's defense systems were responsible for the plane's downing. Aliyev stated that Azerbaijan has three requests from Russia regarding the plane's crash, which include an 'apology' to his country, 'acknowledgment of the mistake,' and 'punishment of the guilty.' He added that the first request was fulfilled following Vladimir Putin's call to him. The Azerbaijani President also mentioned that investigations into the crash of the passenger plane are ongoing, and the final conclusions will be announced after the black box is opened. The Ministry of Transport and the Azerbaijani airline announced on Friday that the plane crashed due to 'external physical and technical interference.' The Minister of Transport of Azerbaijan also stated that survivors reported hearing 'three explosions' during the flight over Grozny. A day earlier, four sources in Azerbaijan told Reuters that the passenger plane was shot down by Russian air defense systems.