Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has declared that his country is preparing documents to initiate legal proceedings against Russia regarding the plane crash involving Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) near Aktau.
Source: Minval, "European Truth".
According to Aliyev, the circumstances of the incident are "as clear as day", yet Azerbaijan has not received any substantive response from Russia for the past seven months.
The Attorney General of Azerbaijan sends requests to the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, but receives only one response: "The investigation is ongoing". The Azerbaijani president deemed this position counterproductive and confirmed Baku's intention to approach international justice.
He mentioned that Azerbaijan has informed Russia about the preparation of a dossier to file the appropriate lawsuit.
Aliyev recalled that the investigation into the Malaysian "Boeing" crash lasted over ten years.
"We are willing to wait ten years, but justice must prevail. Unfortunately, the current situation, which is in limbo, does not aid the development of bilateral relations between Russia and Azerbaijan", he stated.
Aliyev emphasized that Azerbaijan has a clear understanding of what happened to the AZAL aircraft, and Russian officials are also aware of this information. "The question arises: why don't they act as any neighbor would in a similar situation?" he noted.
Aliyev stated that Azerbaijan demands Russia to acknowledge guilt, hold accountable those responsible for the downing of the plane, provide compensation to the families of the victims, and reimburse the losses incurred by AZAL.
On December 25, 2024, an Embraer aircraft of Azerbaijan Airlines on its way from Baku to Grozny crashed near Aktau in Kazakhstan, resulting in the deaths of 38 people.
At that time, President Aliyev claimed that the aircraft had been shot down from the ground.
On February 4, a source within the Azerbaijani government informed Reuters that the country has precise confirmation that the plane was shot down by the Russian air defense system "Pantsir-S".
In early July, Azerbaijani journalists presented a recording in which an order to open fire on flight AZAL was heard.
