On October 26, 2018 a photo, depicting the street name sign with the “Iran Street” written on it, once again appeared on Facebook. This time the photo was disseminated by “National Power” with the caption: “When are we going to name streets after Russia and the Ottoman Empire? Shame!” The “National Power’s” post was shared by other pages, such as “Patriots of Georgia”; and “Nazi Georgia”.
Number of Facebook users commented on “National Power’s” post claiming that the photo was not real and it was totally photoshopped. In spite of this, the administrator of the page insisted “Iran Street” was located in Saburtalo neighborhood and announced to post a video soon.
The photo posted by the “National Power” is a manipulative image as Iran Street can’t be found on an interactive map of Tbilisi Architecture Service and besides, Tbilisi City Council’s names and symbols commission doesn’t confirm the existence of such kind of street.
For the first time the manipulative photo was posted by ,, I’d rather die for Georgia “, on March 29th. But now the photo is not available on page anymore.
According to the initial version of the photomanipulation, Ivane Machabeli street was renamed. This time, the “National Power” assigned this made up street of Iran to Saburtalo neighborhood. The original source of the misinformation “I’d rather die for Georgia” also emphasized that while we name streets after Iran, there is no street of Giorgi Antsukhelidze in Georgia. Tinatin Nibloshvili, Chairman of the Tbilisi City Council’s Names and Symbolism Commission, confirmed to Netgazeti that Antsukhelidze Street in located Isani, and the photo with so-called “Iranian street” name on it, is a photoshopped manipulation.
A second wave of misinformation occurred five months later, in August, and was disseminated by the page of “Wise Thoughts”.