Photo Manipulation with Racial Context
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On June 27, an online edition Georgia and World released an article titled “Number of whites has decreased in the United States.” A manipulative image inserted in the article shows a crying white man surrounded by black people.
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Gamis Studia, June 14, Giorgi Maglakelidze, Alliance of Patriots of Georgia: “We, first of all, need seriously and strictly formulated immigration policy… For example, if you go to the Vake Park… it was a period last year, the year before last, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30, 40 and 50 years ago, when they were with guests, and today it can be said that almost half of them are aliens. For example, when you stand in a queue for ice cream, 5-6 persons out of 10, over 50 percent of them are foreigners and representatives of uncertain nationality.”
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Obieqtivi, Gamis Studia, June 7, Giorgi Lomia, Alliance of Patriots of Georgia: “Georgian demography faces a risk, a serious risk! It is quite possible that after 30 years, 50 years Georgians will make up about 20-25%. But entire population will make up not 3.5 million, but six or seven millions with only 800 000 – 1 000 000 Georgians among them and guess who will be the rest. In 100 years, a referendum may be held in Georgia and the word Georgia may be removed and a new name of our country will appear on the maps. Now, think in which direction we are moving and who is leading us in that direction.”
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Obieqtivi, Gamis Studia, June 16, Gocha Jojua, Christian-Democratic Movement: “When a person, who struggled yesterday, who is a veteran and is starving today, when you give a fire gun to a soldier and tell him to defend the country, what should he defend? Mortgaged home, sold lands with aliens living there, what should he defend, why should he bother himself to defend this country?”
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Obieqtivi, Gamis Studia, June 14, Bondo Mdzinarashvili, host: “There are a lot of foreigners in Georgia… We do not have xenophobic sentiments. It is not correct that a person has phobias. It is quite natural, but it’s very important for us to ensure that firstly Georgians feel safe and well in Georgia, their own country, because Georgia is our homeland and “we have no homeland other than that.” We should not let either the Iranians, or the Turks, Arabs, Iraqis and I do not know who, the Nigerians, to sit on our heads. We definitely have some complaints against them. They should behave themselves in our homeland, because it is not me who arrived in their country and I think that not a single Georgian behaves dishonestly in Nigeria. Otherwise, their families might not even receive their dismembered bodies. And if we are treating you decently, it does not mean that you should jump over yourselves.”
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Sakinformi, June 7, Arno Khidirbegishvili, editor: “Some troubles are even useful – cutting of diplomatic ties with Syria will stop the wave of migrants from this Arabic republic to Georgia. Georgia is already suffocating by illegal and legal migrants arriving from Arabic and African countries; they financially prevail over poor Georgian population and therefore enjoy certain privileges when starting their businesses – mainly bars and hotels; they also buy the best lands and houses. There are frequent cases when migrants deprave and rape local minors. Migrants are also encouraging prostitution and drug use among minors. Provocative behavior by migrants also causes discontent among the Georgian population, whereas the police, as a rule, take the side of foreigners. What will be the fate of Syrian refugees who arrived in Georgia? Will they be deported? It is unknown so far.” News Front
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Civil society organizations
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Alia, June 25 – July 1, Ramaz Gagnidze, Georgian March: “People are running away from this country. Most of them are trying to avoid starvation for themselves and their families. Instead of them, foreigners are entering the country in an uncontrolled manner; they are purchasing property here and gradually becoming masters in this country.”
Obieqtivi, Gamis Studia, June 27, Ramaz Surmanidze, Muslim and Christian Brothers for Protecting the Unity of Georgia: “It is beyond any doubt that there are certain threats facing Adjara, because buildings are built there under the cover of investments and the majority of these buildings are empty. When local citizens go to buy an apartment, they are offered a threefold price and when a foreign national does the same, he may be allowed to enter this apartment without paying anything at all. So, number of non-Georgian elements has increased in our country. There are a lot of non-indigenous people and it creates not only misunderstanding, but a danger as well.”
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Asaval-Dasavali, June 4-10, Irakli Gurchiani, businessman: Our nation will die. Foreigners have washed us away. They are buying Georgian identification cards and residence permits at USD 3 000. Georgian women are washing someone’s underwear abroad for only EUR 600. Lands, lakes, forests have been sold… For the Georgians, land registration is the most difficult process; for foreigners, it is very simple. Why do our people tolerate so much? My Georgia exists for 22 centuries. How long should we, the 22-century-old nation, remain the slaves of others? I do not want to appear in the minority after 20 years. Poor Georgians have emigrated into exile and are suffering in slavery, whereas in our country, nine out of ten foreigners have Georgian identification cards in their pockets. They are buying Georgian lands without any problems. It is impossible to live this way any longer.”
Asaval-Dasavali, Mikheil Tsagareli, astrologer: “The best young people are leaving the country and their place is being occupied by the Turks, Iranians and Arabs.”
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Marshalpress, June 15; Kavkasia Spektri, June 15; Marshalpress, June 15; Imedi, Kronika, June 7; Netgazeti, June 13; Rustavi 2, June 12; Sakinform, June 19; Interpressnews, June 14, Mikheil Saakashvili, the United National Movement: “Georgia is not Russia. I strongly believe that Georgia is not Russia. They will not be able to turn the Georgians into the Russians and especially, into the Chechens. What Georgian Dream did in Marneuli was a behavior typical for the Chechens and [Head of Chechnya, Ramzan] Kadirov. Everything has its limits.”
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Asaval-Dasavali, June 4-10, Dito Chubinidze, journalist: “When I saw Luka Machutadze and Paata Davitaia among politicians, I got horrified and thought to myself –I was afraid of them most of all, and since Machutadze and Davitaia sided with Saakiantz [Mikheil Saakashvili], it means that things are going bad for this government!”
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Obieqtivi, Okros Kveta, June 9, Valeri Kvaratskhelia, host: “It seems that the Armenian lobby tries to meet Armenian interests at the expense of oppressing Georgia’s interests and what are these interests? Probably, to gain access to the Black Sea through the dissolution of Georgia.”
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Asaval-Dasavali, June 4-10, Vazha Shubitidze, professor: “Let’s give everything its name and acknowledge that the Armenians are our opponents, who mainly played a negative role during almost all stages of Georgian history! A lot of misfortunes faced by Georgia were just driven by anti-Georgian actions of the Armenians… One thing is quite clear that the 2008 war took place just because of the Armenians. The West trapped Russia… The Americans, particularly the Armenian lobby, wanted to lure the Russians in Georgia in order to lead Armenia into NATO!”
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Obieqtivi, Gamis Studia, June 20, Vazha Otarashvili, Alliance of Patriots of Georgia: “Turkey is its [Georgia’s] historic enemy, which has grabbed 34% of Georgian territories. And if anybody believes that Cappadocia, Trabzon, or Tao-Klarjeti, Erzurum are Turkish territories… they were Georgian lands and today, when we are mourning for Abkhazia and Samachablo taken away by Russia, we should remember that Tao-Klarjeti, Ardanuç district, Shatberdi and Khandzta are ancient Georgian lands. Due to our cultural policy, we failed to restore these monuments, to erect crosses on them and resume church services there under the Christian rule, and even if the entire clergy arrives from here, nobody lets them in to hold a church service, because they have been turned into cattle stalls. And it happens in the situation, when the whole epopee is built on the construction of a mosque in Adjara with the participation of Nakaidze and some other betrayers of the Georgians.”
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Kavkasia, Spektri, June 20, Gubaz Sanikidze, Democratic Movement – United Georgia: “[He is talking about imports of Turkish products to Georgian market] This is by this free market apologists that… equal conditions for everyone… how can everyone enjoy equal conditions? Yes, they have equal conditions, but then arrives a Turk with the entire Turkish state behind and he is met by a Georgian, whom the Georgian state does not recognize as a human being. So, the conditions are already unequal and he [Turk] will always take the lead. What they failed to achieve with swords and blood can now be achieved with the help of such governments.”
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Obieqtivi, Gamis Studia, June 27, Bondo Mdzinarashvili, host: “People constantly say that Turkey has been carrying out large-scale economic expansion for about 15 years. The Turkish state assists its businesspeople to gain foothold in Georgia. The presidential elections were held in Turkey quite recently and it appeared that the majority of Turkish citizens live in Georgia and almost all of them live in Adjara.”
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Civil society organizations
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Obieqtivi, Gamis Studia, June 27, Ramaz Surmanidze, Muslim and Christian Brothers for Defending the Unity of Georgia: “Those people, who take children [to Turkey for education purposes], are not interested in their education and return to Georgia. But they are rather interested in changing their consciousness so that to receive as many supporters as possible.”
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Obieqtivi, Gamis Studia, June 2, Avto Enukidze, a program guest: “There is such a situation [in Batumi] and such things are happening… so many Turks have settled down here that almost no Georgian words are heard. To say nothing about the churches, I think, they even demolished the Synagogue. It can be said that they are attacking the Christians, but as far as I know, they are also attacking the Jews now.”
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Civil society organizations
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Asaval-Dasavali, June 4-10, Badri Nachkebia, Terrorism and Political Violence Research Center: “Today, there are a lot of wandering groups of unemployed migrants in Georgia, thinking only about their own entertainment in clubs and bars. Sooner or later, they will start self-education and we may receive the system of closed mosques, where the youth will gather and learn new radical ideas; it means that we may receive sleeper cells of Islamic organization and nobody knows when and for what problems these cells will wake up!”
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Discrimination on religious grounds
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Obieqtivi, Gamis Studia, June 12, Nino Ratishvili, host: “When we talk about sects and sectarians and we are not happy when they knock at our doors, and already this proselytism, this preaching everywhere is irritating and just for this reason, our journalist, Nino Mikiashvili was even sued [the Jehovah’s Witnesses filed a lawsuit against her for illegal interference with their right to hold religious rituals]… and why? Because she is against this door-to-door preaching, because it is Georgia, it is an Orthodox country. As soon as you utter a word about sectarians, you may be detained and at the same time, the State remains absolutely inactive when we are insulted.”
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Asaval-Dasavali, June 11-17, Nino Mikiashvili, journalist: “Do you know why all these happen? The Jehovah’s sect should be banned by law. For example, France has banned them as a “totalitarian sect.” Here, they are standing outside the Metro stations and bursting into our homes. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are not the members of a usual religious community. They are sectarians and therefore, the same rules as for the Muslims, Jews or Christians should not apply to them. In my opinion, a huge pressure is exerted on this government from outside to portray the Jehovah’s Witnesses as a religious group and to protect them!”
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Obieqtivi, Gamis Studia, June 20, Vazha Otarashvili, Alliance of Patriots of Georgia: “It appears that pederasts and drug users can hold parades and we should apologize to them and treat them with courtesy.”
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Alia, June 18-24, Jondi Bagaturia, Georgian Troupe: “All those people who revolt against God, who were born men and declare themselves to be women, or if a woman claims that she is a man, or else if a man marries another man… these people who revolt against God and nature enjoy privileges in Georgia provided by the government, laws and the whole army of human rights defenders, whose name is a legion.”
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Marshalpress, June 12; Netgazeti, June 11; Interpressnews, June 12; Sakinform, June 13; Imedi, Imedis Kvira, June 10, Tea Tsulukiani, Justice Minister: “These non-governmental organizations ask me to register a person with male sex organs as a woman and a person with female sex organs as a man. I acknowledge that I have not implemented this reform. This is a matter of legal, medical and psycho-social discussions that should be done before implementing this reform, if at all.”
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Georgia and World, June 14, Davit Mkheidze, author: “[NGO sector] demands Tea Tsulukiani’s resignation because she allegedly does not implement reforms in her agency. They criticize her because Minister Tsulukiani refused captain Gigauri and the Public Defender to register a person with male genitalia as a woman and vice versa, a person with female genitalia as a man.”
Asaval-Dasavali, June 11-17, Dito Chubinidze, journalist: “We, the Georgians, are building a strange country – legislators on district or city levels are telling us over and over again not to dare having sex with animals. At the same time, the friends of captain Gigauri, Nino Lomjaria, Tamar Chugoshvili and Conchita Nika Gvaramia are insisting that a man should marry a man! Moreover, the followers of Sodom and Gomorrah, who have numerously tried to hold a parade of pederasts on the Rustaveli Avenue, have long been demanding the legalization of same sex marriage. I hope that after banning sexual relations of humans with dogs, cats, goats, donkeys, and other domestic animals, the Poti Sakrebulo will also ban a marriage of a man to another man!”
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Civil society organizations
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Alia, June 25 – July 1, Ramaz Gagnidze, Georgian March: “Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia cannot be positive in the new cabinet, as he apologizes to pederasts and drug users, and simultaneously arrests innocent people, who came out to rally demanding the survival of their own country.”
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Alia, June 11-17, Gia Korkotashvili, Georgian Mission: “Police officers who think otherwise fulfill orders for the sake of salaries and arrest those people, whom they sympathize. I wonder, when these police officers return home, what they tell their children. I ask these police officers: will you bring up your children in such a way as to arouse their sympathy for LGBT community? Or will you let your children marry other guys of police officers? If not, then tell me, whom and what are you protecting? Look at what is happening in Europe; the Ukrainian police officers said directly that they would not protect LGBT community. Look at what is happening in Poland, Greece.”
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Asaval-Dasavali, June 11-17, Mikheil Tsagareli, astrologer: “The government should take the side of national-patriotic forces, instead of those who propagandize drugs and lead the country towards Sodom and Gomorrah!”
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Obieqtivi, Gamis Studia, June 1, Vazha Otarashvili, Alliance of Patriots of Georgia: “We have received a hybrid of the National Movement and Georgian Dream and nothing has changed or will change in this country, because it is one and the same political force, the force, which is ruled from outside, which strives to destroy the Georgian nation’s consciousness. These methods will be used to destroy us, they will kill our guys one by one, take our children away through drug use, pederasty. These are the instructions given by masonic organizations to the countries like Georgia. You see that Georgian population has been reduced to less than 2.5 million. So, we are declaring openly that actually Georgia has not gained independence, Georgia is still dependent on big powers and billionaires.”
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Alia, June 18-24, Jondi Bagaturia, Georgian Troupe: “You do not need much brain to understand that the nation stupefied by drugs, where a man turned into a woman and his defenders are dominant, will fail to maintain either the state or the future generation. It also does not need much brain to understand that our “strategic allies” and our human rights legion also want it.”
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Asaval-Dasavali, June 11-17, Giorgi Gigauri, journalist: “I do not want to say that [Nino] Lomjaria and her sect have paid for the sins committed against Vasil Gogoladze and Lasha Amirejibi, but the fact is that two days after the incident, Lomjaria’s office was shaken and damaged by earthquake! Lomjaria’s office had already been burdened with sins when it opened at Nino Ramishvili Street. The place is still full of the sins committed by Lomjaria’s predecessor, Ucha Nanuashvili, who hates Jesus Christ. Yes, it is the consequence of the sins committed by Ucha Nanuashvili, who had always sided with the enemies of Georgian church and orthodoxy – liberasts and pederasts - without even uttering a word about oppressing the Orthodox perish and Orthodoxy in this country. Now, Lomjaria continued Ucha Nanuashvili’s Satanist-liberast dancing with new force and utmost rage!”
Georgia and World, June 13, Grigol Oniani, author: “Today a hidden hand that rules the world does not spare billions for “globalization” purposes and imposes absolutely unacceptable rules of life and laws on the nations. The powers that be are driving people to animal world, trying to hamper the history of civilization and sparing no efforts to establish Sodom and generally sexual depravity.”
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Georgia and World, June 21, Giorgi Razmadze, cleric: “It is no news that the both (Georgia and Ukraine) have long turned into a testing laboratory for Euro-American aggressive liberals. They carry out some experiments here and then take them to their respective countries; sometimes on the contrary, they test there and bring to Georgia. Now, Ukraine has appeared the country where homosexuals celebrated so openly and pompously. I am confident that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, they will do the same here… What is happening in Ukraine today, be it a gay pride parade or something else, is a picture of what will definitely happen in Georgia tomorrow. It is irreversible and we will not be able to avoid it until our country is ruled by pseudo-liberal short-termers ruled from abroad. We cannot avoid it by façade changes such as replacement of one dishonest and immoral ruler by another.”
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Asaval-Dasavali, June 11-17, Koba Arabuli, writer: “When the rallies of drug users and liberasts, as well as sectarians having depraved sex are led by the Dutch Ambassador, you should send this ambassador together with them to the country of pederasts. How long should we be afraid? How long should the government hesitate?!”
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Obieqtivi, Gamis Studia, June 7, Giorgi Lomaia, Alliance of Patriots of Georgia: “This is exactly what this pseudo-freedom has brought us! We tell a woman to be freer, you should have a say in the family! So, the families have broken up. Today, when a man gets acquainted with a woman and wants to have normal and serious relations, he sees on the second, third day that a woman does not want to lose her individualism, saying I have a say in the family, why should I sit at home and take care of children. I should study. If you study and work, if I study and work, what about children… it means that Georgian nation will disappear because we will have no children, because a woman says that she does not want children before the age of 40, 50, but after 50 God will either give you a child or not. Considering it, our demography is facing a serious risk!”
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Georgia and World, June 13, Darejan Andriadze, author: “A woman began to look for a place outside a family. Cold-mind thinking has made a woman’s pure nature harsher. Her desire to have and bring up children has damped down. After leaving a family, a woman has lost her inner calmness, modesty, sincerity, inner depth, undisclosed feeling. A trace of mystery is gradually disappearing from the face of a modern woman.”
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Encouragement of violence
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Obieqtivi, Gamis Studia, June 18, Davit Chichinadze, Georgian Dream: “The National Movement has chosen a new tactic to let as many people beat them as possible… I understand those people [members of Georgian Dream]: we are Southern people, we are Georgians, we are not Scandinavians and cold-blooded, are not we? So, swearing will definitely trigger some reactions…”
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Civil society organizations
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Asaval-Dasavali, June 4-10, Medea Adamia, Young Stalinists: “It was my family that made me fall in love with Stalin. I have Stalin’s bust standing everywhere – at home, in my Chinese office. He was a great person. Is it normal to be ashamed of Stalin and be proud of those cackling hens standing on the Rustaveli Avenue? These people should be tied up to the land; I would make them hoe and dig uncultivated Georgian lands under doping. If they did not improve, Hitler’s gas chambers would be nothing compared to what I would do to them.” Tbiliselebi
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See full collection of examples of discriminatory statements at the website: www.notophobia.ge
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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.
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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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