Russia should apologize more precisely and pay compensation for the shooting down of an Embraer-190 aircraft belonging to Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL), Fuad Huseynaliyev, the Director of Report Information Agency, said in a recent interview on ARB24 TV.
Huseynaliyev emphasized that the preliminary results of the investigation into the incident clearly show that the Azerbaijani plane was shot down in Russian airspace. “Azerbaijan has never stated that Russia intentionally shot down Azerbaijan’s civilian aircraft. Of course, this is an unpleasant incident. But even for this unintentional action, Russia should fully and openly apologize. Russia’s statements on the incident so far have used the phrase ‘unfortunate incident in Russian airspace,’” Huseynaliyev said.
He stressed that this was not an unfortunate incident, but a wrong step taken by Russia’s air defense forces. “Incident and mistake are different concepts. Therefore, I think an apology should be made with more precise terms,” Huseynaliyev noted.
He added that in the next stage, the issue of compensation payment and bringing those involved in the shooting of the aircraft to justice should be implemented. “It would be a bit difficult to predict what steps Russia will take. Because the Russian side knew exactly how the incident happened from the beginning. We will see what steps they will take in the coming days. But it is a reality that the absurd claims put forward on Russian telegram channels are now completely crossed out. The Russian side also understands that they will not be able to hide this,” Huseynaliyev said.
The director also drew attention to the attempts to settle the issue diplomatically in the early days of the incident. “There were attempts to settle the accident through diplomatic means. But Azerbaijan’s determination showed that we will not allow any investigation in any other direction on this issue. That’s why the black boxes were sent to Brazil for opening. However, there is an Interstate Aviation Committee, and this organization carries out the opening of black boxes from aviation accidents occurring in the CIS space. But the organization is located in Russia. The black boxes were sent to Brazil solely for a transparent investigation,” he explained.
