President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev took part in the farewell ceremony held at Baku International Airport for the crew members who died in the crash of a plane flying from Baku to Grozny near Aktau.
The Azerbaijani leader blamed Russia for the downing of the airliner, emphasizing that the plane was not shot down on purpose. He called on Russia to admit its guilt. “Unfortunately, for the first three days we heard nothing from Russia except delusional versions,” the APA agency quotes the head of state.
“The fact that the fuselage was full of holes completely removed the version of a collision with a flock of birds from the agenda. Some circles in Russia preferred to stick to this version. One of the things that upset and surprised us was that Russian official structures put forward versions of an explosion some kind of gas cylinder. That is, this openly showed that the Russian side wants to hush up the issue, and this, of course, does no honor to anyone,” Aliyev stated.
He also said that Azerbaijan’s demands were transferred to the Russian side: “Firstly, the Russian side must apologize to Azerbaijan. Secondly, it must admit its guilt. Thirdly, the perpetrators must be punished, brought to justice, and the Azerbaijani state , the injured passengers and crew members must be paid compensation.”