On November 4, information went viral on social media (1,2,3,4,5), including various media Facebook pages (1, 2), claiming that at a briefing, Shalva Papuashvili, leader of the “Georgian Dream” party, presented a map of Georgia excluding the occupied territories of Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region. The posts included photos in which the occupied territories are not visible.
The information is misleading, suggesting that Shalva Papuashvili presented a map of Georgia at the briefing without the temporarily occupied territories. However, in the same presentation provided by the party’s press office, Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region are shown, marked in gray to indicate that elections were not held in these areas. Additionally, media materials reveal that, depending on the angle of the photograph, the outlines of these regions can be visible on the map.
On November 4, Shalva Papuashvili held a briefing where he discussed several topics, including the results of the parliamentary elections in Georgia and the pre-election period.
In one of the episodes, when Papuashvili talks about election disinformation, he shows a slide with a map of Georgia on the screen. Along with the map, there is information about the “Georgian Dream” delegates and their activities. According to him, a xenophobic campaign is underway in connection with the elections and the high support of the “Georgian Dream” in certain regions. In fact, he linked the party’s winning a large number of votes in the elections to the activity of the delegates.
During a live broadcast on Shalva Papuashvili’s official Facebook page, the map of Georgia displayed the occupied territories with a white background, rendering them invisible. Mamuka Mdinaradze, the executive secretary of “Georgian Dream,” explained on Facebook that these regions were marked in a light color during the presentation, which “did not show well through the cameras.”
The online publication “Publika” released photos from Papuashvili’s briefing showing that the occupied territories are marked in gray, making them hard to distinguish against the white background. Media reports indicate that from certain angles, the occupied territories of Georgia are not clearly visible during the presentation.
The press service of “Georgian Dream” provided “Myth Detector” with the presentation Shalva Papuashvili delivered at the November 4 briefing. In this presentation, the occupied territories are depicted on the map but are distinguished from the rest of the country by being shaded in gray.
On the following slide of the presentation, Papuashvili highlighted that the opposition lacked delegates across Georgia, despite frequent visits to Europe and the USA. Notably, on this slide, the entire map of Georgia was shaded in gray. When presented, like the occupied territories, it was not visible on camera, appearing instead as a white background.
Shalva Papuashvili addressed the information directly, explaining that the occupied territories were shown in a different color in the presentation because elections cannot be held there; thus, Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region were marked in gray. The area where Georgia’s parliamentary elections took place, with “Georgian Dream” delegates, is displayed in blue.
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