December 7, 1988... On that date, a devastating earthquake with a magnitude of 7 occurred in northern Armenia – on ancient Azerbaijani lands. According to Modern.az, during the earthquake, whose epicenter was the city of Spitak, more than 25,000 people died, and 170,000 people were injured. After the earthquake, Azerbaijan was the first to extend a helping hand to Armenia.
A rescue team consisting of personnel from military unit No. 11923, led by the unit's commander Vagif Ahmadov, arrived in Spitak, Armenia, where the earthquake had occurred. At that time, the Azerbaijani brigade rescued hundreds of injured Armenians from under the rubble.
On December 11, a second group of 78 volunteers was assembled from Azerbaijan to provide aid to Spitak. However, the "IL-76" aircraft carrying the volunteers to Spitak was shot down over Armenian territory.
Armenian officials and media claim to this day that the plane was not shot down but crashed. Armenian officials state that "early in the morning of December 11, 1988, shortly before landing at Gyumri airport, an "IL-76M" cargo plane operating on the Baku-Gyumri route crashed into a mountain 15 kilometers from the airport."
Among the 69 passengers and 10 crew members, only Fakhraddin Balayev, who happened to be in a truck in the wing section of the aircraft, survived.
This incident went down in history as a major aviation accident that occurred on Armenian territory.
At that time, the aircraft's "black box" indicated pilot error as the cause of the accident. It was reported that the aircraft's crew had not rested sufficiently before the flight and had performed several unscheduled flights in a short period.
In those days, an aircraft carrying aid from the former Yugoslav republic also crashed in the area between the cities of Etchmiadzin and Armavir. According to some reports, Armenian terrorists also shot down this plane, mistakenly believing it belonged to Turkey.
Reportedly, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who cut short his visit to the USA due to the Spitak earthquake, also narrowly escaped a crash at the last moment while landing in Gyumri by plane.
The aircraft flying from Azerbaijan to Armenia was on the balance sheet of the USSR Ministry of Defense and was dislocated in Lithuanian territory. On board the crashed aircraft were 50 Azerbaijanis, 13 Lezgins, 11 Russians, 2 Tatars, 1 Armenian, and 1 Jew. All of them had been sent to Gyumri to eliminate the consequences of the accident.
The sole survivor of the crash – Fakhraddin Balayev – passed away in 2010.
The Spitak earthquake shook the entire USSR, and all leaders of the allied republics, including Abdurrahman Vazirov, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, also traveled to Armenia.
Furthermore, Azerbaijani rescuers who actively participated in search and rescue operations under the leadership of Emil Akhundov were awarded letters of appreciation.
Azerbaijani rescuers mainly operated in the village of Haribcasyan near Gyumri and in the villages of the Amasia region.
At that time, 85 percent of the aid brought to Armenia by railway fell to the share of the Makhachkala-Baku-Nakhchivan-Yerevan line.
However, the tension that arose in Karabakh at that time had a negative impact on relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Fadey Sargsyan, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Armenia, writes in his book "Life Lessons" that some Armenians returned the aid sent from Azerbaijan.
A. Gafarli
