Journalist Levan Sutidze expressed his opinions on the “Formula” Channel.
“My condolences to the family (of Lekso Lashkarava), to all of my colleagues and, first of all, to the Georgian society that is in danger.
Unlike November 7, there was an additional element – Church, which is the most authoritative organization in Georgia according to every survey. Whatever happened then, in the center of the capital, was done according to the church’s encouragement and planning. They have been doing this for weeks, using openly Putinist organizations they have created for themselves.
These groups should not be confused with the homophobic attitudes of the Georgian society. There are homophobic attitudes in Georgia, they exist, they are real and this is the problem of our society, but Russia capitalizes on it and does it openly – Dugin supports these murderers, collects money for them…
Well, who sponsors these people? None of them are far from the church. For years the church has revolved around these people. It is impossible to find any pro-Russian edition that does not say that it comes out with the blessing of the Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia; All of the Facebook pages of the representatives of these Pro-Russian Putinist groups have posted one or two photos of the Patriarch, etc. It goes without saying, this hatred works in their advantage and I know the government is using it.
I consider it my duty to balance any center of power, including the most authoritative and sacral – Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia, he is responsible. Patriarchate isn’t just an organization: it’s not like we criticize the President’s administration; we criticize the President. They are the creator of all of this, they appointed the new coroner and a new administration that has already entered the marathon of this bloody election for Patriarchate, along with Prime minister Gharibashvili, who often uses this to his advantage before the elections; Gareji topic is a good example of this.
According to this narrative we are the anti-Christians and they are conservatives. They want to use this to oppose the classical ideologies of the west. They are the fascist Russians and we are the Georgian society with our differences. They are not conservatives. You will be surprised to find out, I am a conservative – western conservatism today focuses on freedom of expression. They are not conservatives; they are Putinist trash.
The answer should be demanded from Prime Minister Gharibashvili, this pit of intellect and now also a murderer; And that senseless idiot, Tea Tsulukiani, who sat down yesterday and talked about media restrictions.
We are in a situation in which the Georgian society is not only in a political fight, but also in a cultural one. In this fight we will either survive as a society – the society of Ilia Chavchavadze, The society of Kirion, the society of true Georgian Christians.
Let’s say, you disagree with LGBT groups. But when you are told that no one attacks them, isn’t that stupid? Isn’t it obvious, that people do attack them? Isn’t it obvious, that you might also attack them a little bit? The prayer was organized at 5 o’clock because they did not know when the Pride would take place and then they moved it to one o’clock. So the priests were supposed to be out there just in case 2 colorful-haired girls tried to sneak out to Rustaveli; For this to happen afterwards, and they are now saying that they didn’t know, that they are distancing themselves from violence… Seriously?
If this was happening back in 2013, when you don’t know that you cannot arrest the monsters you have created all by yourself, that have been training in gyms, wearing some kinds of fascist illustrations on their shirts, with craze and Russian elements, classical Putinist, Chauvinist and Nazi aesthetics, and you just look at those people. Having this experience and then taking this people out there, what do you think will happen? Who caused all this hatred for media? Was it not them?
All of this has invisible victims as well – people that were beaten in the streets and suburbs because of their appearance, that are even scared to go to the police. The main victims of this are again, LGBTQ+ people, that have to endure hell caused by the patriarchate of Georgia and of course, the state itself. People are beaten in the streets and they are too scared to call the police.
This is a fight with media, being different, and Georgian tradition – the Georgian tradition of peace.”
