| Obieqtivi, Night Studio, April 9 Temur Koridze, publicist: “Most beautiful Audrey Hepburn used to arrive in the African countries, Somali in order to hug dirty, unwashed children, black children, who were surrounded by flies. Why did she do it? Because she loved frankly, she was a genuine philanthropist…” | |
| Obieqtivi, Night Studio, April 27 Davit Tarkhan-Mouravi, Alliance of Patriots: “Take a walk in the center of the city [Batumi]. Choose any store. All of them belong to the Turkish. Not a single store is owned by Georgian. There is a district in the center, where nobody speaks Georgian. When you are there, you think that you are somewhere in Ankara… We should understand that we are not fighting against the Turkish, but the scales of the Turkish presence here are so large that it has already become dangerous. The Turkish are not guests here anymore; they are patrons and Georgians are their servants… I have stressed repeatedly that Turkey has never been Georgia’s historical friend; it has always been a historical enemy.” Asaval-Dasavali, April 24-30 Valeri Kvaratskhelia, Neutral-Socialist Georgia: “Turkey makes no secret that it considers Adjara within its own borders, to say nothing about the fact that Adjara and already Tbilisi are facing demographic storm from Turkey. They even became impudent enough to prohibit us to celebrate the powerful victory of David the Builder over their ancestors in the Battle of Didgori. Georgian people will again witness the real pictures of Georgia’s splitting and ravaging and they will understand who was a historical enemy and who was a historical friend for them.” Asaval-Dasavali, April 3-9 Dito Chubinidze, journalist: “Probably, many people are irritated to see Georgian rascals on the Israeli soil, like many Georgians feel sorrow when they see Turkisized Adjara and Davit Agmashenebeli Avenue in Tbilisi, which had been burned down by the Turkish for thousands of times.” | |
| Obieqtivi, Night Studio, April 24 Nino Ratishvili, anchor: “I am not against closing this school [Refaiddin Şahin Friendship School]… I am against the fact that when you are doing it, because the Turkish Ambassador told you to do it and you received a directive, I am against it; however, I am not against closing the school.” | | Obieqtivi, Night Studio, April 28 Nino Ratishvili, anchor: “I was called and told that some bearded men are shouting Allahu Akbar in the Batumi Boulevard. I am not afraid and you know that I am not afraid, but I am extremely concerned… If they dare to do it today, it means that tomorrow my country, my homeland will face a serious problem.” | | | |
| Alia, April 24-30 Elizbar Javelidze, People’s Assembly: “Instead of us having complaints against them [Turkey], they raise claims against us. In particular, they arbitrarily build mosques in Georgia so that no one knows how legally they are built and why? No matter how many Muslims will burst into Georgian churches, shout Allahu Akbar, damage and defile everything, the state fines them with only GEL 100; is it right? A Georgian priest in clerical clothing fails to enter the Turkish territory. You probably remember a cleric, who crossed the Turkish border and disappeared. As it turned out later, he was killed just because he was wearing clerical clothing.” | |
| Georgia and the World, April 26 Giorgi Razmadze, cleric: “In its time, Tina Khidasheli abolished churches in those military units, where they existed. Instead, she ordered to build mosques and if you are interested, you can search the number of this order. Such betrayers rule the country and why are we surprised when the Turkish Ambassador prohibits the Parliament to declare the Day of Didgori as a holiday. Soon they will come out and say that we should not celebrate the Easter either, because it insults the Muslims…” | | Georgia and the World, April 28 Davit Kvlividze, cleric: “About a hundred years ago, the Turkish shifted their border deeper to Ozurgeti. Similar developments are still underway. Some people claim today that the Turkish are our historical friends and allies. They were drinking out blood, in the full sense of the word. What friendship are they talking about? How long should these shameful talks continue?” | | | |
| Asaval-Dasavali, April 10-16 Vladimer Khomeriki, the Foundation for Unity of Russian and Georgian Peoples: “Businesses of those Turkish people, whose ancestors as the conquerors of Georgia were defeated by King David the Builder and expelled from the country, are now flourishing on Agmashenebeli Avenue.” | |
| Alia, April 24-30 Nikoloz Mzhavanadze, Union of Human Rights Defenders: “Turkey insulted St. King David Agmashenebeli… The Turkish do not want Georgia to celebrate the great victory gained by the Georgian people over the historical ancestors of the present Turkish people. It is yet another unfriendly step by the Turkish government. It insults our history, great ancestors, St. David Agmashenebeli. It is interesting how far the impudence of the Turkish government will go. Maybe, they will demand us to demolish the monuments to David Agmashenebeli; to destruct the Gelati Monastery and King David’s grave.” | |
| Alia, April 24-30 Vasil Papava, expert: “If they demand holding a referendum in Adjara on its joining Turkey, where should you go? Will you refuse? It is the democratic right; they do not enter with the army. Just hold it; but the Turkish have already done some work with the population on switching sides in favor of Turkey.” | |
|  | | | Kviris Palitra, April 24-30 Otar Danelia, Georgian Dream: “My team and I suppose that land should not be alienated to foreigners. If it is a special project involving modern technologies, if the question is about huge investments, including employment opportunities for our citizens, only in this case and as an exception, we suppose, it is possible to discuss the issue of a long-term lease rather than privatization… Land is an economic asset, but it is important to use this asset with local possibilities and resources.” | | |  | | | Marshalpress, April 18 Dimitri Lortkipanidze, United Democratic Movement: “Under the pretext of implementation of various types of investment packages, foreign citizens are resettling with the purpose of obtaining residence permits here. They are mostly arriving from the Arabic countries. There are direct flights between Sharjah and Tbilisi and those people, who try to obtain residence permits and settle down here, are arriving just using this route.” Source: Akhali Taoba | | | | |
| Asaval-Dasavali, April 24-30 Kakha Kukava, Free Georgia: “No investments and employment promises will justify the sale of lands belonging to Georgian farmers and turning the latter into the slaves of foreigners! We, the Georgians, are on the verge of a demographic catastrophe. And Georgian Dream is paving the way for mass arrival of foreigners here. Since January 6, 1992, the process of purposeful enslavement and degradation of Georgian nation has been underway.” Sakinformi, April 3 Arno Khidirbegishvili, editor-in-chief: “While visa liberalized Georgians are forcibly leaving the country, Arabs, Turkish, Indians and Chinese are actively arriving…” Kviris Palitra, April 10-16 Eter Eradze, journalist: “The recent tendency of buying and cultivating Georgian lands by foreigners is felt in Tsnori most of all. The houses, which had been abandoned for years, were bought by Indians with pleasure and they even gained foothold there. Looking at this situation, one may feel frustration and a Georgian man may finally refuse to cultivate his own land.” | |
| Georgia and the World, April 28 Niaz Diasamidze, the Union of Adjarian Patriots: “Our lands are sold; citizenship is easily granted to foreigners. I met Nigerian students, who do not know even a word in Georgian but have Georgian citizenship. It is nothing but the lack of self-esteem. If I arrive in any country now, will they grant me citizenship so easily?” | | Alia, April 24-30 Gela Parchukidze, conductor: “I got on the bus near the Delisi Underground with a smile on my face and ready to loudly congratulate everyone on the Easter, but the smile froze on my face… there were about 15-20 passengers on the bus … only Indians, Arabs and 2-3 other nationalities… I thought that only Agmashenebeli Avenue was a foreign country.” | | | |
| Newspaper Rezonansi, April 28 Davit Zardiashvili, expert: “How can lands be alienated to foreigners, when Georgian villages do not have enough lands for their own use.” Obieqtivi, Night Studio, April 18 Viewer: “As for the lands, Batono [a polite form of addressing men in Georgian] Dimitri [Lortkipanidze], agricultural lands have been leased. Direct Singaporization is underway, because Georgian farmers have no money to cultivate their own lands; so, they will lease, sell their lands to foreigners; the latter will become owners of these lands; I do not know where Georgian farmers will go, whether they will leave abroad or arrive in Tbilisi.” | |
Discrimination on religious grounds
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| Asaval-Dasavali, April 10-16 Temur Shashiashvili, the White Movement: “This report [that 28 thousand Jehovah’s witnesses have crossed the Georgian border] has been disseminated by the head of one of the news agencies, Keti Mikadze. Yes, Russian Jehovah’s witnesses rushed to the Georgian border after Putin banned the Sect of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia. 12 million Jehovah’s witnesses live in Russia and we should supposedly be glad about it, because, according to expert assessments, Georgia is an attractive country for these people and we should arrange our infrastructure for them.” | |
| Georgia and the World, April 12 Davit Mkheidze, author: “When Jehovah’s witnesses burst into your home and start to popularize Satanism, will it be religious intolerance if you slap them in the face?” Marshalpress, April 14 Editorial board: “It is the list of countries, where the activities of Jehovah’s witnesses are officially banned. The majority of Georgian citizens also demand to officially ban their activities in our country as well. But it is unknown so far whether Georgia will join the list.” Obieqtivi, Night Studio, April 28 Nino Ratishvili, anchor: “Christian sects irritate me as well; so, let’s not mention them at all.” | |
| Marshalpress, April 30; Imedi, Imedis Kvira, April 30 Giorgi Andriadze, chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Georgian Patriarchate’s University: “We have to deal with a new Orthodox-Protestant religious sect [religious organization established by Girchi], which damages the spirits of these people. They even do not know what they are doing.” | |
| Georgia and the World, April 4 Soso Tsintsadze, political analyst: “We need to focus on other priorities rather than to ban the activities of Jehovah’s witnesses. Just to compare, Islam is more dangerous.” | |
| Asaval-Dasavali Vazha Otarashvili, Alliance of Patriots: “I address those people, who adopted the anti-discrimination law: let your families never fall short of same-sex marriages.” Asaval-Dasavali, April 17-23 Dimitri Lortkipanidze, United Democratic Movement: “I would like to see anyone in Georgian Dream, who will come out and say publicly that the legalization of same-sex marriage is an act of immorality, which goes against the principles of Georgian statehood and the moral, which had been the basis of the constitution and all other laws.” | |
| Marshalpress, April 19 Comments of Georgian Dream representative on the report Anti-Western Propaganda 2016 prepared by the Media Development Foundation Nukri Kantaria, Georgian Dream: “I have never made secret that same-sex marriage is unacceptable for me, as an Orthodox Christian and a citizen of this country. I do not really think that my answer to the journalist’s question - “There are countries, where some video clips have been made, where a teacher enters a kindergarten and asks children ‘who have two fathers’ and the children are applauding; then she asks ‘who have two mothers’ and they are again applauding. So, I do not think that these children will grow up mentally normal people; we are very few, so let’s take care of ourselves and our future” – is an anti-Western statement and contradicts the foreign course of our country. | |
| Alia, April 17-23 Gega Khvedelidze, Georgian Idea: “There are a lot of facts and examples that are concealed from Georgian people. For example, the great majority of homosexuals are inclined to pedophilia and it is quite natural for them. At the same time, doctors also confirm that unnatural sexual relations shorten life expectancy. Spiritually such relations are lethal and physiologically they are lethal as well… People will definitely resist any depravity and its legalization.” Kavkasia, Barieri, April 11 Ramaz Gagnidze, Georgian Mission: “Do you call it happiness when a woman lies with a woman and a man lies with a man? I ask you. Do you call homosexuality happiness?” | |
|  | | | Georgia and the World, April 6 Jeni Burjanadze, author: “How will be reproduce, when a great part of Georgian women are mentally ill, while a certain number of young people are interested in non-traditional sexual practices that is nothing but the gravest disease and a huge sin.” | | |  | | | Asaval-Dasavali, April 3-9 Dito Chubinidze, journalist: “Zviad Gamsakhurdia is happy not to live to see today’s ruined Georgia, which has turned into the country, where LGBT activists are ravaging.” | | | | |
| Asaval-Dasavali, April 10-16 Giorgi Gigauri, journalist: “Yes, Georgian patriots did not allow the coquetry of men in tights in the capital on March 31, when the country was marking the 26th anniversary of Georgian independence referendum | |
| Georgia and the World, April 3 Giorgi Razmadze, archpriest: “There is a memorial to our heroes killed in Abkhazia and Samachablo in about 100 meters from there and an eternal flame is burning. What is it called when they are opening a park for homosexuals nearby? As far as the Tbilisi City Hall is concerned, without whose permit it is impossible to plant anything anywhere and especially in the center of the city, let them open the park for sodomites at their homes and let their wives and children look at this depravity…” | | Asaval-Dasavali, April 10-16 Giorgi Razmadze, archpriest: “Let them open the park for sodomites near their homes and let their wives and children look at this depravity. Nobody should expect that under this government the political situation will change in Georgia. It will not happen because they are political successors of the National Movement. That is why Western blue commissars agreed on their coming to power; otherwise, if they had been real opposition, they would have been destroyed from the very outset.” Source: Georgia and the World | | | |
| Kavkasia, Barieri, April 3 Zviad Tomaradze, Demographic Society of Georgia XXI: “The society has the full right to assess this immorality and disease [homosexuality], to give everything its name…” | |
| Marshalpress, April 4 Tornike Tutberidze, Youth Organization Morality: “If we raise the issue of who is using violence today, first of all, the so called LGBT people as well as journalists and non-government organizations loyal to them are oppressors. They are using violence against Georgian traditions, which are closely linked and associated with religion. They are using violence against the minds of young people through their rallies and propaganda.” | | Kavkasia, Barieri, April 11 Ramaz Gagnidze, Georgian Mission: “We live in a traditional country. Anti-Orthodox and pro-homosexual law has been adopted. I am against any person bursting into the homes of LGBT people… But I am also against any LGBT moves, like propaganda, advertisement, parades, I am against all these… ” | | | |
| Asaval-Dasavali, April 10-16 Medea Chkhaidze, academician: “The earlier a parent determines a child’s genetic sex, the easier it will be to return a child to a normal life through hormonal and psychological treatment. But it concerns the individuals with normal genotypes, whose behavior is inadequate to their genetic sex due to a number of reasons… According to the statistical data, among those people, who reveal some signs of opposite sex, 80% are genetically healthy. If a healthy person behaves this way, we should suppose that it is the result of some effects of imitation and immoral socium. Due to their aspirations to mercantilism and Bohemian life, they turned away from their genetic sex, because, regretfully, this tendency has been encouraged and financed from the West.” | |
Anti-Western sentiments/discrimination on religious grounds
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| Asaval-Dasavali, April 3-9 Valeri Kvaratskhelia, Neutral-Socialist Georgia: “Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov gave a firm answer to their [USA] hubbub. Earlier, President Putin responded to this challenge, when he banned the funding of so called non-governmental organizations and religious sects from outside the country. As a result, Russia stopped an insidious mechanism of material support of resident groups from abroad. Look at the current situation in Georgia – how much funding the Jehovah’s witnesses and similar sects, and along with them, NGOs propagandizing false values were receiving from the West.” | |
| Asaval-Dasavali, April 10-16 Sandro Bregadze, Movement Nationals: “We, the patriotic forces, standing on the national ground, should definitely prohibit the activities of those so called non-governmental organizations in Georgia that are involved in propagandizing depravity and protecting so called sexual minorities. Yes, all these organizations that are financed from abroad and receive grants to propagandize homosexuality, to support immorality and depravity should be rooted out from Georgian reality. It is necessary to ensure that our nation survives both morally and ethically… The main threat is that homosexual groups are backed by huge money and foreign political support.” | | Obieqtivi, Night Studio, April 24 Dimitri Lortkipanidze, United Democratic Movement: “Policy of aggressive genderization has been launched after the instructions cultivated by the European Convention, European Charter, various European Conventions on racism and intolerance issues, were included in school curricula. These instructions seem to have a recommendatory nature, but actually they represent a directive to promote the perception of the so called third sex, social sex among children; directives about acceptance of homosexuality are reflected in guidelines… ” | | | |
| Georgia and the World, April 10 Gia Korkotashvili, Our Homeland: “They [NGOs] usually receive remuneration, i.e. salaries from abroad in order to undermine Georgian national values and, generally, culture. A large amount of money is spent for this purpose and people are persuaded that depravity, such as same-sex marriage is a sign of progress and that the state will not develop without it. But we do not need it. If they need it, let them take these people to their country and hold their parades there.” | |
| Asaval-Dasavali, April 10-16 Dito Chubinidze, journalist: “With the help of a huge amount of money transferred from the United States and under the pretext of democracy, those pseudo-Georgians started to lobby the sect of Jehovah’s witnesses; soon, the paid and non-paid advocates of Jehovah’s witnesses and other sects got support of LGBT activists as a result of which we received today’s Georgia – lewdness, which frustrates friends and makes enemies happy.” | | Georgia and the World, April 27 Givi Somkhishvili, author: “The supporters of resettling refugees to Georgia – the country, which fails to take care of its own refugees - have already appeared in OSCE and UN. They would never dare to do it to Azerbaijan or Armenia, because their Parliaments have not adopted LGBT-related laws unanimously. Any depravity, sexual unruliness and dirtiness of same sex people cannot be even mentioned in these countries. But they consider Georgia to be the heaven of immorality and depravity.” | | | |
| Prime Time, April 24 Boris Bedia, singer: “It is very difficult to part from a women decently. I do not understand how some women find it easy to curse. They are cursing like the worst rural women… If I fall in love, I will marry even if she is divorced. Most important is that this person should be able to love me. You may marry a virgin, but she may turn your life into the hell. She may behave in a manner that will arouse your hatred against all women. She should have a good appearance. A man should be happy to return home, to walk with her in the streets, to dedicate songs to her.” | |
| See full collection of examples of discriminatory statements at the website: www.notophobia.ge | |
|  | | | Newsletter was developed by Media Development Foundation (MDF) within the frameworks of the Promoting Integration, Tolerance and Awareness Program in Georgia, supported by USAID and implemented by UNAG. | | |  | | | Opinions and ideas provided in this newsletter are those of the Media Development Foundation (MDF) and do not represent the official position of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the UN Association of Georgia. | | | | |
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