"The cover-up of this incident by Russian state agencies and the focus on absurd theories causes surprise, regret, and rightful indignation," President Ilham Aliyev said during a meeting with the family members of the crew who perished in the plane crash and the surviving flight attendants, APA reports.
"Working groups of the Prosecutor's Office were dispatched to both Grozny and Aktau, where they carried out operational work. I repeat, there is preliminary information. Naturally, we will provide the Azerbaijani public with full information after the investigation has been completed. However, I would like to bring to your attention one point that I stated on 29 December. In Grozny, the “Kovyor operation”, i.e. an operation to close the airspace, was announced after the plane was shot at from the ground. This once again shows that there are very serious criminal issues here. Usually, if there is a threat to the airspace of any country, the airspace of that country is immediately closed. This happens in all countries and has different names. In Russia, it is called “Kovyor operation”. If there was a threat to Russian airspace, the captain of the plane should have been informed about it immediately. The airspace should have been closed immediately and the plane should have turned back. I should also note that about 10 days before the accident, a similar incident occurred near the city of Grozny. An AZAL plane was turned back halfway. Why was the crew not warned about it this time? Naturally, the investigation will show this. I want to say again that the information we have is based on the truth. The cover-up of this incident by Russian state agencies and the focus on absurd theories causes surprise, regret, and rightful indignation. Innocent people died. I repeat that it is precisely thanks to the heroism of the pilots and crew members that about 30 people survived this accident, several of whom were seriously injured. I should also note that the majority of those killed in the accident were Azerbaijani citizens. At the same time, citizens of Russia and Kazakhstan also died. Citizens of Kyrgyzstan were injured," the President of Azerbaijan emphasized.
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