The trends identified in October are as follows:

• One of the main topics of anti-Western statements was the Palistinian-Israeli war. The opinion circulated that by fighting against religion and identity, the West incited Islamic countries to aggression. It was also alleged that the West was forcing Georgia to accept refugees from the Gaza Strip.

• Turkophobic messages reiterated the threat of expansion into and Islamization of Georgia, and Russia was seen as the only deterrent.

• Xenophobic statements labelled Ukrainian citizens residing in Georgia as deserters and Russian citizens residing in Georgia as peacebuilders who had left their country because they did not want to kill Ukrainians.

• Armenophobic statements presented Armenian refugees as a threat and Georgian citizens of Armenian ethnicity in a negative light; anti-Azerbaijani narratives denied the existence of Azerbaijani ethnicity, linking it to Turkey.

• Antisemitic statements centered on the threat of Jewish occupation of Ukraine.

• Racist messages portrayed people of color as citizens of the lowest social standing, prone to crime, and unable to overcome the traumas of the past.

• Much of the homophobic narrative was linked to the amendments to the  Law on Broadcasting. Some actors claimed that with these amendments, the EU was purposefully restricting their freedom of expression.

• Homophobic hate speech was directed against the Artistic Director of Shalva Dadiani Drama Theater in Zugdidi, Lasha Sherozia, and the Mayor of Tsalenjikha, Gia Kharchilava. In addition, in one case, a terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas was presented as punishment for “buggery.”

• Sexist hate speech targeted President Salome Zourabichvili and female politicians from opposition parties.

Xenophobic statements in October portrayed Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan as occupying/unfriendly countries and called on society to show gratitude to Russia for Georgia’s “territorial and national integrity.” Messages about the threat of the resettlement of Armenian refugees in Georgia were disseminated. In addition, some actors demanded that the law on granting citizenship to foreign citizens be tightened.

Nikoloz Mzhavanadze, Sezoni TV host: “I walk the streets; it’s enough to go to Adjara, and you will no longer see Georgians on the streets… Or go to Didi Digomi, which seems like an Iranian district.”

Davit Akhrakhadze, war veteran: “Is Georgia overcrowded with Russians? No, it is not, but it is overcrowded with Ukrainian deserters. […] A young Ukrainian male who arrived here is a deserter for me, and if a Russian deserter is a deserter, it is because he does not want to kill Ukrainians.”

Vazha Otarashvili, Alliance of Patriots: “Our country’s demographic situation needs legislative protection… Georgian citizenship is very easily granted to foreigners, be they Arabs, Turks, Iranians or others… At bureaus of the National Registry, we can find out that very many foreigners have already become citizens of Georgia, obtained residence permits, and own wealth in Georgia, which is very dangerous for our country.”

Dito Chubinidze, journalist for Asaval-Dasavali: “I hope that the Georgian government is not as stupid as the government of Noe Zhordania and will not open the door to Armenian refugees whom their historical homeland refused to accept. The Armenian refugees, who, in the words of Thomas of Metsoph, ate a thousand people, stayed in Georgia and did not even think of returning to their homeland. Only God knows how many descendants of those cannibals today are genetic saboteurs with changed surnames, and how many have seats in our parliament.”

Dito Chubinidze, journalist for Asaval-Dasavali: “Azerbaijan never existed as an independent state, as an entity under the sun, but was artificially created, like, for example, ‘Kazantrip’ … In reality, Azerbaijani means Turk.”

Mamuka Kartozia, Alliance of Patriots: “If tomorrow this issue arises and Russia, proceeding from its pragmatic national interests, requires … for example, to turn a blind eye to it, Turkish troops will be in Adjara the very next day and may even absorb Guria and Adjara.”

Nikoloz Mzhavanadze, Sezoni TV host: “We [together with Russia] should have created a joint anti-terrorist center. It would have benefitted us because we would have avoided what is happening there today – the Islamization of Adjara, turning the whole of Adjara into mosques.

Makvala Berianidze, journalist for Asaval-Dasavali: “It has already become known that all the infrastructure that Russia razed to the ground in and around Odessa had been taken by Jewish companies before the war, and they planned to dismantle everything in order to build new buildings and districts […] The statement that the UN Secretary General, Antonion Guterres, made regarding Israel changes a lot. So, he said that for 56 years, Israel has kept the Palestinians under torture and occupation. Surprises are in store for poor Ukraine, which is completely destroyed. You have seen that as soon as the situation in Israel deteriorated, 15,000 people instantly returned to Georgia. A thousand and a hundred times more than 15,000 people will arrive in Ukraine.

Giorgi Kardava, Conservative Movement: “Because negroes were slaves 300 years ago, they are still going through that trauma… they are in a socially bad starting condition, i.e., white people are more privileged. […] Well, negroes do not work, but they do not work because they were slaves for 300 years and they could not figure out these social structures, and so they prefer to sell crack on the streets … and be involved in gangster shootouts and record rap music.”

The emphasis on non-Georgian ethnic origin was made with the aim of discrediting the other side. The targets were ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, and the chairperson of the Servant of the People faction in the Ukrainian Rada, Davit Arakhamia.

Levan Khachapuridze, citizen: “I cursed Saakashvili’s Ossetian father and mother… Saakashvili’s grandfather, Misha Saakov, lived at the beginning of the Ateni Gorge. It is a purely Ossetian village. His grandfather, Misha Saakov, and Pavle Khabalashvili, aka Khabelov, were neighbors. In that village, 70% are Saakaians and 30% are Siukayevs. Let me remind you that in 2010, Saakashvili gave an interview to journalist Dmitry Gordon and confessed to him that his surname is South Ossetian. At that time, I cursed that government of genetic saboteurs with a changed surname.”

Dito Chubinidze, Sezoni TV co-host: “The country has been ruined by this rogue, this villain, these scoundrels and those Podolyaks, as well as that Georgian, that real serpent. What kind of Georgia he is, he is a scoundrel who ran away from Gagra, Davit Arakhamia. And we need to find out what kind of surname he has and also what ethnicity he belongs.”

Much of the homophobic narrative in October was related to the amendments to the Law on Broadcasting. Using homophobic examples, some actors tried to demonstrate what kind of expressions were being restricted. Furthermore, homophobic hate speech was directed against the Artistic Director of Shalva Dadiani Drama Theater in Zugdidi, Lasha Sherozia, because of a play he staged, in which, according to the claims made in such a speech, a sex toy was used. Tsalenjikha Mayor Gia Kharchilava was also the object of homophobic comments for decorating the streets of Zugdidi with multi-colored umbrellas.

Dito Chubinidze, Sezoni TV co-host: “This Sherozia must be kicked out of there. He should be examined by a proctologist; who is he after all? As soon as he started talking, it became clear who he was. However, I call on the population of Zugdidi – no, not to beat up those wretches or anything like that… I call on the population of Zugdidi to make these perverts pay the price and to expel these pederasts from the theater.”

Malkhaz Topuria, Alliance of Patriots: “They wanted to hold a gay festival in Tsalenjikha. The Mayor of Tsalenjikha, if you ask him, is a good toastmaster, but he turned out to be an ordinary hen who allowed them to hang umbrellas, and the people of Tsalenjikha came out on the street … and, excuse me for this comparison, showed those umbrellas up his ass, and made him remove those umbrellas. By the way, police removed them with great pleasure.”

Giorgi Razmadze, archpriest: “Nothing is accidental. […] A few weeks ago, there was a million-strong march of pederasts, and there has just been an incident at the electronic music festival where drugs, and prostitutions, and buggery are acceptable, and from where up to 300 people were taken away and seized. […] Usually, sin is followed by appropriate punishment.”

Irakli Martinenko, Conservative Movement: “Let me tell you what will be considered hate speech; for example: we do not support the public holding of LGBT pride, it is unacceptable, its holding must be banned.” Giorgi Kardava, Conservative Movement: “I believe that LGBT propaganda is bestiality, immorality, and inhumanity; it is also hate speech”… Shota Martinenko, Conservative Movement: “Homosexuality is a perversion and pathology… a transgender man who says that he is actually a woman is suffering from a mental disorder.”

Jaba Zhvania, Alt-Info host: “I understand a person who cannot restrain himself. For example, there was a pederast wandering around… Every now and then he came up to the cross installed in front of the parliament, made faces there and recorded videos saying that it would be dismantled, fallen, broken off, etc. How should this be tolerated? Meeting a pederast in the street, who the day before was…. Georgia is a country whose main value is religion.”

Shota Martinenko, Conservative Movement: “Should someone who beats a pederast be judged differently than someone who beats up an ordinary person? I cannot understand what kind of attitude this is… It is complete liberalism when it concerns a pederast, and since it is a pederast, people go to jail for four years.”

Anti-Western comments actively promoted the view that, by insulting Islam, the West was encouraging the creation of a coalition of Islamic countries and their aggression. As in previous months, the USA and Europe were again presented as the force fighting against identity and interested in corrupting the future generation. To this end, Halloween, celebrated on October 31, was also presented as a “managed process.”

Giorgi Kardava, Conservative Movement: “Let’s imagine that you live in Marseille, France, and you are a third-generation Moroccan immigrant… you have maintained your identity because the majority in Marseille are your type of people, and you were born in those ghettos; and you have more or less the same economic opportunities; a Frenchman has nothing that you do not have… and this Frenchman became a woman… I don’t know, he put on a woman’s dress and well, this Frenchman went nuts. He became imbecile, became an animal. He cannot tell the difference between the sexes, mutilates his kid’s genitals; dresses his son in a girl’s clothes. How can you not feel aggression toward him? How can you integrate into his society? It's incomprehensible.”

Nikoloz Mzhavanadze, Sezoni TV host: “This is the tenth time that the Quran, this holy book for Muslims, has been burnt in Sweden, and the Swedish government does not care, saying that it is freedom of speech and expression. This has caused serious resentment in Iran, in Turkey as well… What are you doing? What are you trying to achieve? … For us, of course, Christianity is the main religion, but I personally am also very hurt when the rights of Muslims are violated… This is the policy of this scumbag West to cause confrontation; why? Why should you give Charlie Hebdo the green light to draw a cartoon of Muhammad? Why should you burn the Quran? If you want to burn, then burn yourself… Just try to burn the symbol of pederasts, and you will be punished by law.

Beso Barbakadze, journalist for Georgia and World: “They are trying to force countries like Georgia to accept not 1 or 2, but 50,000 refugees. Many people may not know that the EU has repeatedly asked Georgia to accept refugees. There is a shelter in Georgia where up to 20 Palestinians (only women and children) live, but it does not mean that where we have accommodated up to 20 people, we cannot also find a place for 50,000 … That’s why we say that Georgia should not be greedy for grants offered by Europe and America, nor for other conditions, be it even the candidate status in exchange for giving shelter to refugees; we do not want such a status.

Spiridon Tskupirishvili, Archpriest: “These Satanic rituals, propaganda of depravity, immersing the nation in drugs, casinos, destruction of the nation, etc., etc., etc., are all being imposed on us by our new occupier, the liberal West? Alas, the problem is exactly that … Could grants be a reason? […] Halloween is a controlled process to take away our future generation.”

Giorgi Kardava, Conservative Movement: “There was a fact in the history of Georgia when a liberast came from the West and asked local liberasts to teach him something. These clowns themselves need to be trained; after what we organized on July 5, very many Westerners contacted us - I do not know how they got our phone numbers, we were not that famous then - and a lot of Europeans met with us, called us, and asked us to teach them how to be like us.” 

Jaba Zhvania, Zura Makharadze, Alt-Info hosts: “A Caucasian who identifies himself with the West looks most ludicrous and comical…. – Zura Makharadze: “I have coined a term for him – geopolitical transgender, i.e., you imagine that you are in Europe, but in fact you are not, and you behave as if you live in the center of Europe, but in fact you do not, and you are inadequate.”

Irakli Martinenko, Conservative Movement: “If Russification of Georgia by Russian is possible, then Europeanization of Georgia by Europe, by seizing Georgian identity, is also possible, and what Europeanism implies directly contradicts the values of Georgians, because it contradicts Christian values.”

Mikheil Tsagareli, astrologer: “Entering Europe means, along with gaining a certain comfort, also the destruction of Georgian identity, strengthening of LGBT groups, weakening of the Church, and influx of refugees into Georgia. Let me say bluntly – today Europe is ruled by an evil force.”

Levan Gabashvili, journalist for Georgia and World: “If the United National Movement returns to power, one of the priorities will be the freedom of the LGBT community. They will be allowed to hold Pride, as was done in Moldova this year, when up to 1,500 LGBT activists came to Chisinau from various countries and were guarded by law enforcement officers from all over the country so that they could march proudly down the street. In exchange, Moldova received EU candidate status, while Georgia did not. This begs the question that should be loudly voiced: Do we need the status at this price?

In October, targets of sexist hate speech were President Salome Zourabichvili, and women politicians from opposition parties.

Criticism based on gender stereotypes

Jumber Tavartkiladze, politologist: “We will not have a decent government if a Georgian woman does not stay at home and raise good children for the country; we have the government proportionate to the children we raise for the country. […] Georgian women, Georgian mothers, should go back to families and start bringing up the kind of children comparable to those children that the mothers of our previous generation brought up. […] A father can bring up a child but cannot give him or her the warmth that a mother gives. Children brought up by mothers are completely different, have a completely different mentality, and they think in a completely different way.”

Ridicule/offence on the basis of mental abilities

Ageism

Gela Zedelashvili, journalist for Asaval-Dasavali: “Like Khandzteli, grandma Salome too may live to the age of 102; looking at her smoothed cheeks, I think it will be the case, but it is not enough to remember Khandzteli when looking at her.”

Ridicule/insult based on appearance

Tristan Tsitelashvili, military expert: “The political party that has Ani Tsitlidze in politics, Ani Tsitlidze – this frog of Anaklia swamps - and the other one, Salome Samadashvili, that pig with a disfigured nose.”

Slut-shaming