After 3.5 years of imprisonment on the charge of illegal purchase, storage and carrying of weapons, Giorgi Chelidze, the leader of the Georgian neo-fascist movement “Georgian National Unity”, reappeared in the political arena. In the summer of 2022, after leaving prison, “in response to the new geopolitical reality and the need to save the Georgian statehood,” Chelidze announced the establishment of a political movement, the creation of the so-called 14-point plan and his participation in the 2024 elections.
In order to achieve the mentioned goal, Chelidze started pursuing activities in a number of ways, including in the direction of mobilizing youngsters. In particular, on August 23, 2022, Chelidze founded the project “Georgian National Squadron,” which, according to the official announcement, unites those young people who want to participate in the organization of civil defense, train and fulfil specific tasks in coordination with the armed forces of Georgia.
Notably, in January 2023, a questionnaire from “Georgian National Squadron” appeared on social media, calling on “citizens and volunteers of Georgia with a national idea, including minors, to join the civil defense organization.” It should be noted that along with the questionnaire, videos of the training conducted by the “Georgian National Suqadron” were also distributed on social media.
In the application form of the “Georgian National Squadron,” one reads that the members accepted into the civil defense organization will get to know the issues of civil security, defense and support of the Georgian Armed Forces during the war, and they will have the opportunity to train and exercise with the appropriate equipment. The organization accepts members from the age of 14 (with the consent of a parent or guardian). In addition to the state of health, the questionnaire also contains questions about the political ideology of the applicant (do you support any political ideology? If yes, which one? Are you a member or activist of any movement, or party? If yes, which one? Do you support the Georgian national idea, Georgian nationalism?).
In the description of the public Facebook group of the “Georgian National Squadron”, which currently unties 648 members, we read that “national (aka nationalistic) squadron (aka fascism) is the only form in which a nation can function.” The main goal of the organization is to save the Georgian nation and Georgian identity. “National Squadron” labels itself as a “Georgian nationalist fascist” organization.
In the video published on December 18, 2022, Giorgi Chelidze, the leader of the “National Squadron,” stated that active and large-scale training has already started in order to help the armed forces of Georgia in case of war and to lead the partisan movement.
Giorgi Chelidze: “We have started active and large-scale training, we are learning various war tactics in order to find volunteer support for our armed forces in case of need during warfare, as indicated in our charter, and also, if God forbid the state falls, we will intervene. We will lead the partisan movement, in order to restore the statehood and independence of our country.”
The start of military exercises can also be confirmed by the videos published on the YouTube channel of “Georgian National Unity”. The organization has already started this type of training, and the members of the “National Squadron” are undertaking exercises using airsofts. The leader of the organization, Giorgi Chelidze, announced the training of young people in the rural regions of Georgia, including Kutaisi as well.
What do we know about Giorgi Chelidze and “Georgian National Unity?”
Giorgi Chelidze’s first organization, “Georgian National Unity”, was registered in the public register on November 2, 2016. According to the charter of the organization, the goal of “Georgian National Unity” is to “carry out a policy of common consent and peace, according to which the movement presents the Georgian worldview as a priority.”
It should be noted that at the initial stage of the establishment of the organization, the leader of “Georgian National Unity” was Tornike Kiviladze, who was nominated as number five on the list of “Georgian Idea” in the 2016 elections. Since 2018, the leader (commander) of the organization is Giorgi Chelidze, and the members of the organization are Irakli Ghutidze, Beka Lolashvili, and Giorgi Chiradze. Giorgi (Giga) Chelidze was arrested on September 1, 2018, on the charge of illegal purchase, storage and carrying of firearms and ammunition, and the court sentenced him to 3 years and six months in prison. At the beginning of 2022, Giorgi Chelidze continued his work after serving his sentence.
Members of “Georgian National Unity” appear mostly in masks at demonstrations and protests and often use Nazi symbols and gestures, quoting Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. In the Telegram channel of the Union, fragments from the public speeches of Adolf Hitler and from the book “Mein Kampf” are often distributed. The symbol of “Georgia’s national unity” is the armband and cross of the Georgian battalion of the Wehrmacht.
In April 2017, members of “Georgian National Unity” supported the visit of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to Georgia, which also meant supporting the law passed in Hungary, which meant closing the Central European University funded by the Soros Foundation. In May of the same year, the members of the union took to the streets in response to the rally demanding the change of the drug policy and announced that they will form squads and start patrolling the city in order to prevent the “lawlessness” that the police cannot handle. It should be noted that on May 5, 2018, the police started an investigation due to the threat expressed by “National Unity”. “If anyone threatens us with war, threatens us with civil confrontation, our response will be brutal, and it won’t only be with words; if they decide to shed our blood, ten times more of their blood will be shed,” Chelidze said at the protests held in May 2018. At the same rally, Chelidze also stated that “members of national unity” create the agenda in Georgia: “Drug dealers and LGBT propagandists cannot lead the agenda of Georgia. The agenda belongs to us!” It should be noted that these phrases still appear in the clips prepared by the National Unity of Georgia (1, 2), which are distributed on various platforms.
In one of the videos spread on Tik Tok, Giorgi Chelidze throws the LGBTQ flag into the trash can and notes that this is the way you expect all liberals and preachers of multiculturalism.
Giorgi Chelidze: “This is how we call upon all liberals and cultural Marxism preachers and propagandists who preach multiculturalism, feminism, LGBT and other distorted ideologies that are deadly for our nation. We need a generation raised on national traditions and Georgian morality, so we will call everyone.”
Chelidze also makes anti-immigration statements and thinks that only Georgians should live in Georgia: “I promise you this land, these buildings, where Russians, Negroes, Arabs, Chinese, Indians, Pakistanis are settled, once we come to power and start working, within a month the country will be cleared of foreign seeds.”
“Georgian National Unity” tries to gain support through other social media platforms (Telegram, Tiktok, YouTube) rather than Facebook. This can be explained by the fact that in the past years, Facebook deleted some of their pages due to anti-immigration and xenophobic messages (1,2). As of April 12, 2023, “Georgian National Unity” has 2,800 subscribers on YouTube, 3,488 subscribers on TikTok, and 1,013 subscribers on Telegram. Through these channels, Giorgi Chelidze’s “Fascist Conversations”, excerpts from Adolf Hitler’s “My Struggle”, as well as fragments of the 14-point plan developed by “Georgian National Unity” are distributed.
