Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said he wanted Russia to publicly admit that it accidentally shot down an Azerbaijani passenger plane in December last year, killing 38 people on board, and to punish those responsible, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
At that time, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to Aliyev for the incident, described by the Kremlin as “tragic”, which occurred over Russia, in which the Azerbaijani Airlines plane crashed after Russian air defenses opened fire on Ukrainian drones. Putin did not say at the time that Russia had shot down the plane.
Speaking at a news conference in the city of Khankendi during an event called the Global Media Forum, Aliyev made it clear today that he wanted much more from Moscow, which he accused of inaction after the downing of the plane.
“We know exactly what happened - and we can prove it. Moreover, we are confident that Russian officials also know what happened,“ he said. "The real question is: why didn't they do what any responsible neighbor should do?", Aliyev added.
He said Azerbaijan expects the incident to be officially acknowledged, those responsible to be held accountable, the families of the victims and injured to receive compensation, and Moscow to reimburse the costs of the destroyed plane.
"These are standard expectations within the framework of international law and good neighborly relations," he said.
Flight J2-8243, traveling from Baku to the Chechen capital Grozny, crashed near Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia, where Ukrainian drones were reported to be attacking several cities. Thirty-eight people died and 29 survived the tragedy.
Ties between Moscow and Baku have deteriorated sharply in recent months after Russian police detained a group of ethnic Azerbaijanis living in Russia and charged them with various crimes.
At the same event, Aliyev said today that he wanted a transit corridor between Azerbaijan and its exclave of Nakhichevan to be opened, passing through Armenia.
Aliev said: "We are talking about unhindered state access from Azerbaijan to Azerbaijan. And we understand this literally - we are talking about a connection between parts of one state". He added that if and when such a connection is established, passengers on Azerbaijani trains should not be exposed to physical danger from Armenian civilians, whom he accused of throwing stones at such trains in the Soviet era, and called for "reliable and verifiable" security guarantees. "This is an absolutely legitimate and fair request," Aliyev said.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on July 16 that the United States had offered to manage the potential transport corridor.
The potential corridor that Baku wants secured would run about 32 km through Armenia's southern Syunik province, connecting most of Azerbaijan with Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani exclave that borders Baku's ally Turkey. The transit link is one of several obstacles to a peace deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia, neighbors in the South Caucasus region who have fought a series of wars since the late 1980s and remain bitter rivals, Reuters reported. In March, the countries said they had finalized a draft peace agreement, but the timing of its signing remained unclear.