Azerbaijani youths respond to hate speech
By Anastasia Sokhadze
Tuesday, March 31
The grave situation regarding offensive comments against Azerbaijani people intensifies.
Xenophobia against ethnic minorities living in the Marneuli region has exacerbated after one of the residents tested positive for COVID-19, who didn’t practice social distancing, having hidden her traveling history.
Azerbaijani youths, living in Marneuli, created a Facebook page in Georgian, responding to the wave of hate speech. They are calling for support, urging everyone to abstain from spreading hatred. They openly write about their experience as victims of xenophobia.
“The virus will pass, the generations will slowly learn to mature, respect each other, and time will pass, but it will be immensely hard to heal the wounds of so much hatred towards us,” wrote Hamid Sadik, an Azerbaijani teacher.
Dozens of other young Azerbaijani have written, saying that they do not deny that because of the language barrier, people are having troubles to be better informed, leading them to distribute news videos themselves.
Apart from psychological stress the comments on social media cause the Marneuli residents, some hateful remarks involve threats of physical abuse.
“Burn, burn those uneducated and dirty creatures, set Marneuli on fire and throw them all in jail. Make them leave Georgia for good,” reads one of the comments on Facebook.
“I am in a difficult situation, stuck in nothing but emptiness. We are trying to change the situation for the better, but you can’t imagine how painful these comments are. These comments are conscious, unfortunately,” wrote Giulgun Mametkhanova, 21, who is known for her social activism in the region.
Tamta Mikeladze, who has been defending the rights of ethnic minorities for years, emphasized that not much has changed over the long period of time.
