Observations of the week

The following facts have been noted in the period of 19-25 January: hate speech – 2; calls for violence – 2; justification of violence -2; statements regarding insulting religious feelings – 7; religious discrimination – 4; unfounded statements regarding religious motives while reporting on crimes - 5; putting the issue of the Armenian religious buildings in the negative context – 3; xenophobia – 2; Turkophobia – 6; Armenophobia – 1; unfounded statements regarding ethnic identity – 1; homophobia – 7; anti-Western sentiments -11.

Hate speech

Obiektivi, Night Studio, 21 January

Rezo Amashukeli, poet: "The foremost crime is that they did not exterminate them [the Nationals] in the first day… All this should had been over on 2 October [2012], but the US won’t let them do this."

Calls for violence

Justification of violence

Religious feelings

Imedi, Imedis Kvira, 25 January

Naniko Khazaradze, anchor: "I am against any satire on religious topics. Religions is a very delicate thing, which must not be ridiculed, drawn pictures about all the time. Especially when there is a legal case ."

Religious discrimination

Geworld.ge, 22 January

Elizbar Diakonidze, deacon: „The Muslims plan to build a mosque in Belarus… I wonder, what is the matter with the Christians and the world, so that they pursue cartoons and don’t pay attention to the strengthening of the Muslims.”

Lia Tskhomelidze, neighbor of the deceased person: „He had his soul sold to the Satan… The woman really went to some sect, always talked about fortune-tellers and curses, and they made her finally crazy...”

Unfounded claims about religious motives while reporting on a crime

Arrest of the Iranian citizen, suspected for murder of a resident of Batumi Mariam Kochaladze in 2013, was reported on in the unbalanced way by certain media outlets. Specifically, the 9-o’clock news on Maestro TV, Rezonansi newspaper, Interpressnews and Pirweli news agencies spoke about the religious motives for the crime, on the basis of the comment by the victim’s parent (sacrifice of a Christian during the Ramadan). The official version of the investigation regarding the motive was not represented. This one-sided reporting misguided the audience and supported rise of intolerance towards the Muslims.

Maestro TV, 9-o’clock news, 20 January

Zhuzhuna Beridze, mother of Mariam Kochaladze: „He [the murder suspect] took her cross, he cut it out and left the rope, so that I and everyone else could see that this had religious motive. How did he select these, before the sunset, at 18:30, on 22 June, on the 15^th day of the Ramadan.. He must confess who tasked him and why he destroyed my [child], who ordered him to come?!“

The issue of Armenian religious buildings in the discriminatory context

Alia, 21 January

Giorgi Andriadze, former parliamentary secretary of the Patriarchate: “When the Russian Empire came to the South Caucasus it settled very large Armenian diaspora… Armenian churches were actually built during the period of Russian occupation, but the question is – if that occupation was justified, then the return of these churches is also justified?..

Churches without masters always get mustered by devils, so the problem here is on the Georgian side." 

Xenophobia

Kviris Chronika, 19-25 January

Gela Zedelashvili, journalist: "Today they often say that only ethnic Azeris work in Georgia, and now there are also Chinese and Indians. But what do they care for? They work and work on land in our country… They have no idea, how our hearts hurt about this and how we suffer...

When they [EU] come, we'll say proudly that we are dissolving clouds by our ph...us and allow minorities to preserve their harvest from nature".

Bakur Svaidze, author: „The wish to put theravages of foreign citizens in our country within some legal frame is not xenophobia at all."

Turkophobia

Armenophobia

Alia, 22 January

[a fragment from an article]

Modest Kolerov: "They [Armenians] lived in the Syrian desert and could not even put forcemeat into vine leaves. Because they had neither. They had camel’s manure which they gathered, dried and fried.. In the 1970s Armenians destroyed the Sardar palace in order to delete from memory Yerevan’s Muslim past… People identify history by the works of literature, which Armenians simply do not have."

Unfounded statements regarding ethnic identity

Arno Khidirbegishvili, Saqinform Editor-in-chief: "Malaysian „Boeing 777“ over Donetsk was hit by the same kind of missile of Arsen Avakyan’s Pravyi Sector that was used by Misha Saakyani to bomb Tskhinvali in the night!"

Homophobia

Kviris Palitra, 20 January

Levan Vasadze, author: „During the last 30 years, in some regions of the world, more specifically in the Western countries, the propaganda of immorality has become something like an aggressive religion...

Notably, almost always the sodomites want to adopt a boy, while lesbians want a girl. Later, many of these poor children have suicide attempts, and almost all of them have problems with drugs and alcohol, since when they become teenagers, often their “two fathers” or “two mothers” satisfy their sexual wishes with them... While at first they are used to this abomination, that instead of father and mother they have “two fathers” or “two mothers”, they discover that in truth they have two cynical immoral beasts."

Obiektivi, Night Studio, 23 January

Rezo Amashukeli, poet: "The TV channels of that uneducated whores and educated pederasts, how can you discuss Rustavi 2, that it is a business… The state and the government must come to their senses and everything must work for their destruction... Georgia will not belong to pederasts until there is at least one Georgian man in Georgia.”

Alia, 20 January

Rezo Amashukeli, poet: "...So I am a man, and a pederast is also a man, how does this work? 

Gender stereotypes

Kviris Palitra, 20 January

Levan Vasadze, usinessman: "They pass us an issue, for instance the one about domestic violence. For the last 25 years they have been letting a Georgian peasant watch kissing, blood and violence of the Latin American women with silicones, and thenwe are surprised, that the family culture has fallen down.”

Ether Eradze, journalist: „Only the head of the family, 38-years old Arazakh Medov, was at home, watching TV.”

Anti-Western sentiments

Obiektivi, Night Studio, 23 January

Rezo Amashukeli, poet: “The main blame for all of this is the country and the ambassador of the country [US], which encouraged and did everything for this bloody regime not to be punished… They should choose, the West or whatever the hell they are, they must choose between those murdered and the Georgian people… What should Bidzina Ivanishvili or Irakli Garibashvili do? Even a bird cannot fly over without Norland’s comments."

Alia, 20 January

Rezo Amashukeli, poet: "While these Americans care about the Nationals, how do they want to turn people to their side?... They say – Western values, what does that mean? That a child must grow without knowing is he a girl or a boy, is this Western values?"

Vitaly Churkin, Russian representative in the UN: "Everywhere, where Washington has meddled there is destabilization, bloodshed and crisis [regarding events in Ukraine]".