On September 19-21, 2023, Georgian- (1, 2) and Russian-language (1, 2) Facebook accounts published a photo of an alleged meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and businessman George Soros. The authors of the posts hint that relations with Soros became a prerequisite for the loss of Karabakh for Armenia.
The disseminated photo is altered, as Pashinyan’s face is inserted in it manually. The original version of the photo shows the meeting between George Soros and the former Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev.
George Soros and Zoran Zaev met in 2019 in Davos in the framework of the World Economic Forum. An altered version of the photo, with Pashinyan’s face in it, was still circulating in 2020, and it was verified by the Georgian fact-checking organization Factcheck.
Notably, even a simple observation of the fake photo shows that Pashinyan’s head looks unnatural and is inserted manually.
It is interesting that the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, made a statement concerning the fake photo in 2022. As it turned out, he thought the photo was authentic, which is why he called Pashinyan and Soros a “two-headed dragon.” In response, several Azerbaijani media exposed Aliyev’s lie (1, 2). The authenticity of the photo was verified by the Azerbaijani fact-checking organization Fakt Yoxla. As they note, according to Nikol Pashinyan’s statement, he has never met George Soros.
It is worth noting that linking different persons to George Soros and discrediting them in this way is a commonly used method. “Myth Detector” wrote about conspiracy theories and disinformation about George Soros in the past as well:
- Myths about George Soros
- Who Spreads Conspiratorial Film about Soros, Georgian Snipers, and American Soldier?
- 2 Disinformation and 2 Conspiracies about the NGOs and George Soros
About the Source:
The Facebook account “შიინ ევროპისკენ” [Home to Europe] along with two accounts with the same name (1, 2) actively distributes anti-Western and homophobic posts. The false information spread by these accounts has been debunked by “Myth Detector” in the past as well.
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