The Azerbaijani authorities announced this Tuesday, January 9, the arrest of a French national, a businessman accused of espionage by Baku, thus confirming information that had been circulating for several days and which would follow the expulsion of diplomats from the two countries at the end of December. France and Azerbaijan have tense relations. Tensions which increased following Azerbaijani military operations last September to retake Nagorno-Karabakh, a region which was until then in the hands of Armenian separatists.
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Paris is demanding the immediate release of Martin Ryan, this French businessman, detained by the Azerbaijani authorities since December 4 and who is accused of espionage.
If at first the French authorities did not wish to express themselves on the subject, the declarations of the Azerbaijan ambassador in Paris, this Tuesday at Agence France Presse, changed the situation. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed the arrest of Martin Ryan. A detention that he considers arbitrary.
His father, Richard Ryan, who was able to speak with his son on four occasions according to AFP, believes that this affair is linked to the tensions between the two countries and the expulsion of diplomats from the two countries a few days before his arrest.
Martin Ryan, specializing in the importation and distribution of food products, called on Paris to normalize these relations with Azerbaijan in various letters addressed to the French authorities in recent years. Relationships that continued to deteriorate.
Paris and Baku have been engaged in a real standoff for several months: Azerbaijan reproaches Paris for its support for Armenia, while France reproaches Baku for having led a campaign of information manipulation to discredit it before the Olympic Games planned for this year.
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