Identical twins who were sold at birth finally reunited after 22 years apart
Mia Williams
Featured Image Credit: Facebook/@Sartania Anno
Identical twins taken from their mother at birth were reunited through the power of the internet after two decades apart.
Amy Khvitia and Ano Sartania from Georgia were separated and sold to different families.
Amy was just 12 years old when watching the TV show Georgia’s Got Talent and asked why a girl dancing looked exactly like her.
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And it wasn't just her, as everyone else had been calling her mum, asking why she was on the show but dancing under a different name.
However, her mum brushed it off, claiming ‘everyone has a doppelganger’.
Just under a decade in 2021, Amy posted a video of herself on TikTok getting her eyebrow pierced.
Ano was sent the video by a friend claiming how similar the two looked, leading her to put out a plea for information online.
After receiving a tip from someone on a WhatsApp group, Ano messaged Amy on Facebook.
Realising it was the girl she'd seen on the dancing show all those years ago, she wrote to her: "I have been looking for you for so long!"
Amy replied: "Me too."
After realising they had so much in common - even down to their haircut - they arranged to meet each other face-to-face.
"It was like looking in a mirror, the exact same face, exact same voice. I am her and she is me," Amy told the BBC.
But the more they got to know each other, the more didn't make sense - as their birth certificates claimed they had been born weeks apart.
The girls decided to confront their families, who told them they'd been adopted a few weeks apart in 2002 from the now-demolished Kirtskhi Maternity Hospital.
Ano said she was 'angry and upset with my family' but wanted everything to be over so they could 'move all on', while Amy felt like her whole life had been a lie.
Both girls' mothers were told that they were unwanted babies and that paying the doctor would mean they could take one of them home.
The twins also realised that their birth certificates had included 'wrong' information.
However, their adoptive families didn't know the girls were twins or that buying babies was illegal. The BBC reports that they also refused to reveal how much they paid for them.
After being reunited, they were later connected with their biological mother through a Facebook group, which was run by journalist Tamuna Museridze.
Their mother explained that she'd fallen into a coma shortly after giving birth and when she woke up, she claimed the hospital said that her babies had died.
However, the twins were not the only victims of this alleged 'baby black market' as Museridze, who discovered she was adopted in 2021, claims the scale is 'unimaginable'.
Adding: "Up to 100,000 babies were stolen. It was systemic."
According to the BBC, the Georgian government changed its adoption legislation in 2005 and strengthened it further in 2006.
In 2022, the outlet reports that a formal investigation was launched, but says 'no criminal wrongdoing' had been identified so far.
The BBC approached the Georgian Interior for more information but was told that specific details would not be released due to data protection.