Minister and “Kozanostra” Apologized to the Society

Humanrights.ge

Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs of Georgia Lado Vardzelashvili and Team of the Funny and Clever Club of the Tbilisi State Medical University “Kozanostra” apologized for the anti-Semitic statement made on Imedi-TV on April 2.

During the Competition of Funny and Clever Club, participants were asked: “What is the best deed of Hitler?” and Kozanostra replied: “Free natural gas in every Jewish family.” The audience applauded them for the reply and the jury with five people evaluated their “smart” reply with points 5; the Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Lado Vadzelashvili was jury member too.

On April 12, the Human Rights Center made a statement about the fact and requested resignation of the Minister Lado Vardzelashvili.

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Humanrights.ge is working on a long article about this fact which will be published soon but meanwhile, we would like to publish the statements of the Minister Lado Vardzelashvili and Kozanostra Team which was sent by the head of public relation department of the Ministry Vano Maisuradze in the evening of April 13 and they requested us to publish their statements in reply to our statement.

Statement of the Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs of Georgia Vladimer Vardzelashvili

We would like to respond to public concern and fair complaint about the statement of one of the participant teams in the Competition of Funny and Clever Club on April 2 on TV-Company Imedi.

I would like to clarify that soon after the competition I expressed my deep concern about the reply with the members of the the Tbilisi State Medical University team Kozanostra which insulted millions of people; though my conversation with the young people was not published not to heart their feelings. The students convinced me they did not aim to insult anybody. They got extremely worried about their mistake during our conversation. 

I would like to express my categorical disrespect to any xenophobic or anti-Semitic statements as well as to any ironic statements about the crimes committed against humanity; thus, I would like to apologize to those people who felt insulted and hurt because of the unconscious statement of the young people.

Reply of the Ministry

Statement of the Team of Funny and Clever Club of the Tbilisi State Medical University Kozanostra

First of all, we apologize to the society in general and every person who was hurt and felt insulted with our reply in the program.

We want to convince entire Georgian society that we fully understand the incorrect character of our reply now though it was result of unconsciousness rather than device.

National Federation of the Funny and Clever Club
Public Relation Department