Ilham Aliyev rules out deliberate attack on AZAL plane

Official Baku demands an apology and compensation, the President of Azerbaijan said.

As "Caucasian Knot" wrote, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced the preparation of documents to file claims in international courts regarding the crash of the AZAL plane, since Russia did not admit guilt and did not punish those responsible for the deaths. Soon after, the Azerbaijani publication Minval published the names of the Russian military involved in the crash of the AZAL plane. The commander of one of the divisions, who gave the order to shoot down the plane, was promoted after the disaster, the journalists indicated.

02:57 31.07.2025

Russian political scientists named the goals of Baku's disclosure of details AZAL plane crash

The publication of the chronology of the AZAL plane crash and the names of the Russian military personnel involved in it exacerbates the negativity in bilateral relations and is due to Baku's decision to suspend the process of rapprochement with the Eurasian group, distancing itself from Moscow.

Azerbaijan does not consider the crash of the AZAL airline plane in Kazakhstan as a deliberate attack, the country's President Ilham Aliyev said on the Fox News channel.

"Azerbaijan does not consider this as a deliberate attack. We only demanded recognition of what happened, punishment of the perpetrators and full compensation," the head of Azerbaijan said.

It should be noted that on December 29, 2024, shortly after the crash, Aliyev said that the plane was damaged by external impact in the Grozny area, and this led to loss of control.

Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, commenting on Baku's intention to appeal to the court, said that this is Azerbaijan's right. "Investigative actions are underway, a trial is underway. We will await official verdicts from all trials and investigations," he said.

Relations between Moscow and Baku have noticeably worsened after the plane crash. More details about this can be found in the "Caucasian Knot" report "Baku-Grozny Flight Crash" and in the article "Geopolitical Confrontation: What Did the AZAL Plane Crash Lead to?".