BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 25. One year has
passed since an Embraer 190 passenger aircraft operated by
Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) and flying the Baku-Grozny route crashed
near the city of Aktau. There were 62 passengers and 5 crew members
on board, totaling 67 people. As a result of the crash, 38 people
were killed, and 29 were injured, including 3 members of the flight
crew.


Following the tragedy, President Ilham Aliyev signed an order
awarding state honors to individuals who displayed exceptional
professionalism and courage during the accident involving the AZAL
Embraer 190 passenger aircraft operating the Baku-Grozny (Russian
Federation) flight. Under the decree, crew members Igor Kshnyakin,
Alexander Kalyaninov, and Hokuma Aliyeva were posthumously awarded
the title of National Hero of Azerbaijan.


“I cannot even describe what a year without Hokuma has been
like. Even if 10, 20, or many more years pass, our pain will remain
with us. There is fire inside us, a storm, a hurricane, whatever
feeling you can name,” her father, Jalil Aliyev, told Trend.


Aliyev said his daughter’s greatest dream had been to buy a home
in Kalbajar.


“Fate decided that President Ilham Aliyev himself presented our
family with the keys to a house in Kalbajar. I currently live in
Samukh, while my son lives in that house in Kalbajar with his
family. He works at the DOST Center in Kalbajar,” he said.


Aliyev noted that after their lands were occupied, the family
lived as internally displaced persons in various regions of Russia
and Azerbaijan.


“Until our lands were liberated, we lived in different parts of
Russia and Azerbaijan as displaced persons, and since 2003, we have
been settled in Samukh. When I asked Hokuma why she wanted to work
as a flight attendant, she said that, because we had lived in many
cities, being in different places was her hobby. Hokuma had bought
herself an apartment in Baku’s Nasimi district. It has been 1 year
now that I cannot bring myself to go near her home,” he said.


According to her father, Hokuma was calm by nature and well
aware of her rights.


“My daughter began working at Azerbaijan Airlines in 2016, first
as a translator and later as a flight attendant. In September 2024,
she took an exam to work as a lawyer at Azerbaijan Airlines, and
she was supposed to start her new position after that final flight
(the one in which the crash occurred). Hokuma had also been
accepted to the University of Liverpool for a master’s degree, but
I did not allow her to go,” Aliyev said.







He added that during a meeting with the family, President Ilham
Aliyev assured them that those responsible for the plane crash
would receive the punishment they deserve.


Aliyev also emphasized the respect and recognition shown in
memory of his daughter.


“An armored military ambulance produced in Kazakhstan has been
named after the National Hero of Azerbaijan, Hokuma Aliyeva. She
was awarded the Chingiz Aitmatov Medal for her great
humanitarianism. In Poland, the Azerbaijani diaspora organization,
together with the Student Youth Organization, established a
scholarship in Hokuma Aliyeva’s name. Already 7 Azerbaijani
students are benefiting from this scholarship,” he said.


Aliyev added that the family continues to wait for those
responsible for the crash to be apprehended.


“In the summer, I visited the site where the plane crash
occurred. When I returned from there, I could not pull myself
together,” he said.


On December 23, a commemorative postage stamp dedicated to the
AZAL aircraft that crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25 last year
was issued. The release of the stamp was a joint initiative of AZAL
and Azerpost LLC and was dedicated to the anniversary of the crash
near Aktau.


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