The Vandalic Calls of the Supporters of Levan Vasadze’s “Alt-Info” and “ERI”

On July 5th, apart from forcing the cancellation of the “March for Dignity” and exerting violence against journalists, the representatives of the anti-Pride violent homophobic groups removed the EU flag from the Georgian Parliament. Two days later, on July 7th, following the “silent demonstration” against violence, the flag was once again removed and barbarously burned by the same groups.

After the events of July 5th, the hosts of Alt-Info have openly stated that violence had to become the standard of their political and ideological fight and underscored the necessity of normalizing the burning of the Western symbolic.

On July 22nd, when the European Court of Human Rights has passed a judgement in favour for “Aiisa” by pointing out the violation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Levan Vasadze-linked “Alt-Info” and its supporters found another reason to continue burning the EU symbols. On July 23rd, Zura Makharadze, the host of “Alt-Analytica,” openly called for vandalic actions by creating a Facebook challenge, where the supporters should print out the EU flag, burn it using a lighter, and encourage two other friends to do the same.

Zura Makharadze, Host of Alt-Info: “You print out the EU flag, a small one, you take the flag, take the lighter, burn the flag and tag two friends by saying: If Europe means putting the face of King Tamar on a condom than this is my answer. I am tagging two of my friends. So let’s make a challenge.”

The challenge initiated by Zura Makharadze was performed by Shota Mamulashvili, one of the supporters of Vasadze’s party “Unity, Essence, Hope.” Mamulashvili burned the EU flag and publically encouraged the others to do the same thing. In addition, Mamulashvili included several political messages in the video, proclaiming that all of Georgia’s neighbours are occupants. Moreover, he asserted the importance of an open dialogue with Russia.

Shota Mamulashvili, Supporter of “Unity, Essence, Hope”: “I am now going to burn this trash so that I can take things off my chest. What more can I do? And, in general, when we say “we need Europe, we have to realize, why does Europe need us? As for the people saying that Russia is an occupier. Any of our neighbours is an occupier, and so is Russia. It is an empire, and when someone is bullying you, you don’t run away saying, “I don’t speak to you anymore.” You try to maintain your pride somehow and stop the violence. For 30 years, we have been saying that Russia is an occupier. Everyone around us is an occupier, so we have to find the power to talk to it and end it. As for this trash [talking about the EU flag], I bought it for 6 Gel at the train station, and if you want, you can find it there.”

It is worth mentioning that Mamulashvili attended the demonstration on the 7th of July together with the leaders and supporters of “Alt-Info.” His profile pictures include the logos of Vasadze’s party “Unity, Essence, Hope” and “Alt-Info.” In addition, Mamulashvili actively shares the videos of the Tbilisi Pride counter-demonstration and “Alt-Info.”

Which groups and pages was Shota Mamulashvili’s video shared to?

The video of Mamulashvili was uploaded to the Facebook page of the World Congress Of Families X Tbilisi. The representative of the World Family Congress in Georgia is Levan Vasadze, a businessman and the leader of the party “Unity, Essence, Hope.” Apart from the WCF Facebook page, the video was shared on 5 other Facebook pages and 8 groups.

On July 24^th, before the circulation of the video of Mamulashvili’s vandalic act, the initiative of Zura Makharadze about burning the EU flag was shared by two newly-created Facebook pages.

Calls for Burning the EU Flag in Groups:

Calls for Burning the EU Flag were shared in 4 Facebook groups:

Facebook group
ქართველი კონსერვატორები (Georgian Conservatives)	თავისუფლება & ადამიანობა & დებატები & Freedom & Humanity & Debate & Live
კორონა მაფია (Corona Mafia)	ჩვენ გვიყვარს საქართველო (We Love Georgia)

Calls for Burning the Flag by Fake Accounts

Calls for burning the EU flag were shared by five fake accounts linked with the party “Unity, Essence, Hope” and “Alt-Info.”