Aliyev accused Russia of deliberately concealing the downing of an Azerbaijani aircraft.

The Embraer 190 liner of the Azerbaijani airline AZAL, which was flying from Baku with 67 passengers on board, crashed because it was shot down by Russia, and its attempts to cover this up are provoking outrage.

This was stated by the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, during a meeting with the relatives of the deceased and injured passengers and crew members of the aircraft, as reported by the country's state news agency.

“I can confidently say that the blame for the death of Azerbaijani citizens in this disaster lies with representatives of the Russian Federation. We demand justice, we demand punishment for those responsible, we demand complete transparency and humane behavior,” the president emphasized.

Aliyev noted that the operation "Carpet," which involves closing the airspace, was announced in Grozny, where the Embraer 190 was supposed to land, only after the aircraft had been shot down from the ground, and not before, as Russia claims.

“If timely measures had been taken to close the airspace over Grozny, if ground service rules had been followed, and if coordination between the armed forces and civilian services of the Russian Federation had been established, this tragedy could have been avoided,” he said.

According to Aliyev, the Kremlin's attempts to “sweep this incident under the rug and insist on absurd versions of the causes of the disaster” provoke “surprise,” “sorrow,” and “just indignation” from Azerbaijan.

He added that if Baku had seen the desire of Russian officials to objectively investigate the tragedy “from the very first minutes or hours,” they would have agreed to the decoding of the black boxes by the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC). However, since the Azerbaijani side has doubts about its objectivity, the black boxes were sent to Brazil.

Aliyev also questions why the plane was directed from Chechnya to Aktau, and clarified that there is currently no information about this in Baku.

“Was this decision made by local dispatchers, or did the pilots realize that the radio-electronic warfare systems in Russian airspace would no longer allow them to land and made this choice themselves? <…> Of course, after the black boxes are opened, all this information will come to light,” the president stated.

Recall: among the versions, the main reason also cited is that the Russian authorities directed the downed aircraft to Aktau over the Caspian Sea, hoping it would fall into the sea and sink, thus concealing the traces of being shot down by a Russian air defense missile.

Background. The plane crashed in Aktau on December 25. There were 67 people on board, including five crew members. 29 of them survived, while 38 perished. According to preliminary reports, the cause of the crash was a Russian surface-to-air missile fired during the repulsion of a drone attack over Grozny. The missile exploded near the aircraft, damaging its fuselage. The crew requested an emergency landing, but no Russian airport granted permission. As a result, the plane headed over the Caspian Sea towards Kazakhstan's Aktau.

A source in President Aliyev's administration reported that Azerbaijan has no intention of accepting assistance from Kadyrov; instead, Baku demands official acknowledgment of the fact, an apology, and the payment of appropriate compensation.