As news broke of a disputed result in Georgia’s parliamentary elections on Saturday, civil society organizations and state-controlled media from neighboring Azerbaijan began receiving a barrage of messages: support the ruling party’s victory.
The messages seemed to be aimed at the ethnic Azeri minority population in Georgia, a key voting bloc for the ruling Georgian Dream party, which gained 54 percent of the vote.
Georgia’s four main opposition parties, and the country’s president, Salome Zarubishvili, have disputed the results of the polls. Local election observation groups also reported violations.
Within hours of the results being announced, messages popped up in a WhatsApp group of civil society organizations in Azerbaijan, which are often followed on social media by Azeris in Georgia who share the same language.
“Azerbaijanis living in Georgia, and in general the Georgian people, voted no to war, internal confrontation, degradation of national and moral values,” read one message.
Half a dozen Azerbaijani civil society organizations published near-verbatim statements on social media congratulating the Georgian Dream party.
State news agencies in Azerbaijan followed suit, praising Georgian Dream’s policy platform and lauding Georgia’s sizeable Azeri ethnic minority for voting in droves for the party of billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili.
OCCRP spoke to six voters in Marneuli, a municipality in southern Georgia that borders Azerbaijan, where most people are ethnic Azeri. All of them said they voted for Georgian Dream, although they did not want to be quoted by name due to the unstable political situation following the election.
"Just like everyone else, I went out to vote on October 26 in the parliamentary election, choosing the ruling party,” said one person. “No one pressured me — it was my choice to vote for Georgian Dream.”
There was no indication that residents were under pressure to vote or speak about the election in a certain way. But messages obtained by Mikroskop Media, OCCRP’s partner in Azerbaijan, contained instructions to civil society groups to comment “properly” on the election results.
It is not clear where the messages originated.
The messages were sent the day after the election to a WhatsApp group called “NGO Agency”, and many emphasized the Azeri vote for Georgian Dream. Some civil society groups then posted statements echoing the messages.
One organization called Ulvi, which supports low income families in Azerbaijan, published a statement on Facebook congratulating “compatriots” in Georgia for choosing between “war and peace, traditional and immoral values.”
Ulvi did not respond to a request for comment.
Nadir Ismayilov, the president of the Central Asia and South Caucasus Freedom of Speech Network Public Union, included some of the same lines in his Facebook post, adding that Georgia’s vote had foiled the “West’s dark plans”.
Ismayilov told reporters that he often comments on world and regional affairs and does not “consult” with or “report” to anyone when publishing statements.
Ivanishvili, Georgian Dream’s founder, has publicly spoken of a “global war party” which he claims is backed by the West and seeks to drag the Caucasus state into a violent confrontation with neighboring Russia.
Opposition leaders and international analysts have accused Ivanishvili’s party of leading the country down a path of Russian-style authoritarianism. They cite a divisive law requiring non-governmental organizations and independent media that receive funds from abroad to register as agents of foreign influence, as well as tough laws curbing LGBTQ+ rights.
Azerbaijan's support for Georgian Dream is connected to its relationship with Russia, according to Azer Gasimli, head of the Institute of Political Management, a think tank in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
“Russia and Azerbaijan are allies, because both of them are authoritarians and they have common interests. Azerbaijan geopolitically made its choice in favour of Russia,” Gasimli said in an interview.
“If Georgian Dream loses power, Russia’s influence in the region will decrease even more,” he said.