The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, stated that his country is in the process of preparing documents to file a lawsuit with international judicial bodies concerning the plane crash of Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) near Aktau.
Source: Minval, "European Truth"
According to Aliyev, the circumstances of the incident are "clear as day," yet Azerbaijan has not received any substantial response from the Russian side for seven months.
The Attorney General of Azerbaijan has sent inquiries to the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, but has only heard the reply: "The investigation is ongoing." The President deemed this stance unproductive and confirmed Baku's intention to seek international justice.
He mentioned that Azerbaijan has informed Russia about preparing a dossier for the appropriate lawsuit.
Aliyev recalled that the investigation into the Malaysian "Boeing" crash took over ten years.
"We are willing to wait ten years, but justice must prevail. Unfortunately, the current unresolved situation does not contribute to the development of bilateral relations between Russia and Azerbaijan," he stated.
Aliyev emphasized that Azerbaijan has a clear understanding of what happened with the AZAL aircraft, and Russian officials also possess 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's acknowledgment of guilt, accountability for those responsible for downing the plane, compensation for the families of the deceased, and restitution of damages incurred by AZAL.
On December 25, 2024, an Embraer aircraft of Azerbaijan Airlines, flying from Baku to Grozny, crashed near Aktau, resulting in the deaths of 38 individuals.
At that time, President Ilham Aliyev claimed that the plane was shot down from the ground.
On February 4, a government source in Azerbaijan informed Reuters that the country has precise confirmation that the aircraft was shot down by the Russian air defense system "Pantsir-S".
In early July, Azerbaijani journalists showed a recording in which a command to open fire on flight AZAL was heard.