Azerbaijani state media cover Georgian Dream’s pre-election campaign

Over the last month, Azerbaijan’s official government news agency Azertac has published multiple articles focusing on ethnic Azerbaijani candidates running for the ruling Georgian Dream party, while failing to provide a platform for Azerbaijani opposition candidates. 

On 16 October, Azertac interviewed Georgian Dream MP Zaur Darghalli, who said that his party had guaranteed stability in Georgia, and elaborated on how it was able to keep the peace for the last 12 years. 

‘These elections are elections between establishing and violating peace in all regions. I am confident that the Georgian people and citizens of Georgia will support peace and stability on 26 October’, Darghalli told Azertac. 

Two days later, on 18 October, Azertac published an interview with Georgian Dream candidate Savalan Mirzayev. In his commentary, Mirzayev alleged that Georgia’s opposition had no local support, and that the latest surveys showed that 60% of Georgians supported Georgian Dream.

According to Mirzayev, ‘the West has been trying to achieve a change of power in Georgia for several months. It was noted that the country’s leadership has repeatedly stated that we do not need to open a second front. The main goal is to establish peace and stability in the country, to create the best conditions for the country’s development’.

Azertac has also published articles echoing rhetoric used by Georgian Dream, such as linking Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to Georgia’s internal politics, and alleging that a ‘second front’ against Russia could be opened in Georgia.

Senior members of the ruling party in Georgia have been accusing the opposition of seeking to drag Georgia into war against Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in early 2022.

Azertac has also reported on alleged Western intervention in Georgian politics, singling out international organisations such as Amnesty International, Freedom House, and Human Rights Watch. 

Ogtay Kazimov, an ethnic Azerbaijani candidate running for the opposition Coalition for Change told OC Media that pro-government media in Azerbaijan has not reached out for comments or interviews from his coalition, and that only Meydan TV and Voice of America contacted them. 

A member of Azerbaijan’s opposition REAL party, MP Erkin Gadirli, told OC Media that was Baku is primarily interested in its investments in Georgia, regardless of who was in power.

‘Regarding Georgia, Azerbaijan supports the government every time it changes’, he said. ‘It should do it because it invested billions to build petrol-gas infrastructure in Georgia’. 

He said that Azerbaijan was also interested in the elections because of the presence of ethnic Azerbaijanis in the country, whose interests it should protect.

Azerbaijanis constitute the largest minority in Georgia, with over 230,000 Azerbaijanis residing in Georgia, or 6.5% of Georgia’s population, as of 2014, according to an official census.