On March 24, POSTV journalist Natia Beridze posted information on Facebook, asserting that following the Georgia-Armenia football match on March 23, Armenian fans swore and insulted Georgians with offensive gestures, which led to a confrontation. She also uploaded a video where Armenian fans can be heard chanting at the beginning. According to Beridze, they were chanting the phrase “F*ck your mothers,” directly targeting Georgian fans.
The claim that the chants of Armenian fans in the video are insults directed at Georgians is not true. In reality, the Armenian fans were chanting “Melikbekyan heratsir,” which translates to “Melikbekyan, leave!” in Georgian. This chant was aimed at Armen Melikbekyan, the President of the Armenian Football Federation.
At the beginning of the circulated video, the Armenian fans’ chants were neither offensive nor directed at Georgian supporters. In reality, Armenian fans were repeating the phrase “Melikbekyan, leave!” (Մելիքբեկյան, հեռացի՛ր). By doing so, they demanded the resignation of the President of the Armenian Football Federation, Armen Melikbekyan, as they were dissatisfied with his leadership. It is noteworthy that fans actively voiced their demand for his resignation and specifically this phrase both during the game and before it started. Armenian media also wrote about it, and videos depicting it were disseminated.
Notably, Armen Melikbekyan was present at the match, seated in the VIP section of Dinamo Arena alongside the President of the Georgian Football Federation. This section was precisely where Armenian fans were looking while chanting.
A number of Facebook accounts have already posted, clarifying that the Armenian fans were demanding the resignation of their federation’s president, which caused confusion among Georgians and led to a confrontation. However, at this stage, the exact cause of the clash remains unverified. As a fragment from a live broadcast uploaded by an Armenian media outlet shows, when young Georgian fans stormed the field, Armenian players approached their supporters’ section, where they were met with criticism and dissatisfaction from the fans. Following this, the players started heading toward the locker room, at which point the Armenian fans began chanting “Melikbekyan heratsir!” [“Melikbekyan, leave!”]. The footage from the Armenian media’s Facebook live from 3:33 minutes matches the beginning of the video uploaded by Natia Beridze.
The footage also shows that at the moment when the Armenian fans began chanting the aforementioned phrase, the confrontation had not yet started. However, the situation escalated after 10-15 seconds, leading to mutual insults from both sides and the throwing of various objects. This makes it logical to assume that the young Georgians interpreted the Armenian phrase as a Georgian insult, which led to the confrontation, but proving this with open sources is currently impossible.
The match between the national teams of Georgia and Armenia took place on March 23 at the Dinamo Arena, ending with a 6-1 victory for Georgia. After the match, chaos broke out at the stadium, with some Georgian fans entering the field, followed by a conflict with Armenian supporters.
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