Azerbaijan’s leader has accused Moscow of carrying out a “cover up” over a passenger jet crash last month that claimed 38 lives, as relations sour between the two neighbors.
While meeting on Monday with the two surviving flight attendants and families of other crew members that died, President Ilham Aliyev said the preliminary investigation into the crash had confirmed that the plane was hit by Russian air defenses, according to Azerbaijan’s state news agency (AZERTAC).
The airspace above Grozny, the capital city of the southern Russian republic of Chechnya, was only closed after the plane was hit, Aliyev alleged.
Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 was traveling from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny, but was forced to make an emergency landing in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day. Thirty-eight of the 67 people on board died in the crash.
“I can confidently say that the guilt for the deaths of Azerbaijani citizens in this accident lies with the representatives of the Russian Federation,” Aliyev said. “We demand justice, we demand punishment of the guilty, we demand complete transparency and humane treatment.”
Days after the crash, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized that the “tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace,” but did not accept responsibility.
Putin said Russia’s air defense systems were active when the plane attempted to land in Grozny, according to the Kremlin, and that the area was being attacked by Ukrainian combat drones.
Aliyev on Monday again accused Russia of a “cover up,” saying the “focus on absurd versions” of the crash has ignited “surprise, regret and rightly indignation” in Azerbaijan.
“If the city of Grozny had taken timely measures to close Russian airspace over its territory, if all the rules of ground services had been observed, and if there had been coordination between the armed forces and civil services of the Russian Federation, then this tragedy would not have happened,” he said.
In a break from protocol, his televised comments were made in Russian rather than Azerbaijani.
Aliyev also praised the flight’s crew for their heroism and bravery, hailing the pilots’ “professionalism” and ability to make an emergency landing to save some of those onboard.
People from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were on board the plane, which was a Brazilian-made Embraer 190.
Brazil’s air force said Monday its investigators had completed the extraction of data from two black box recorders that were recovered from the crash, Reuters reported. The flight recorders had been sent to Brazil, where international experts were joined by their Azerbaijani counterparts to analyze the devices in a move to ensure transparency and credibility, according to Kazakhstan state news agency.
The data has been sent to the Kazakh authorities investigating the crash, according to Reuters. Kazakhstan’s government is cooperating with Azerbaijan on the investigation.
Separately, Russia’s investigative committee has opened a criminal case in relation to the disaster, the Kremlin said.
Video and images after the plane crashed showed perforations in the plane’s body that look like damage from shrapnel or debris. The cause of the holes has not been confirmed.
“I am sure that in the near future we will learn the initial results, and everything will fall into place. The whole picture of the tragedy that occurred will also become known,” Aliyev said. “Of course, this will be an important moment in the full investigation of the tragedy and the punishment of its perpetrators.”