Featured Image Credit: Facebook/Sartania Anno
Topics: News, World News
Anish Vij
The dark truth behind the Georgia twins who were separated at birth has been revealed as they finally meet each other 19 years later because of a TikTok video.
Amy Khvitia was just 12 years old when she was watching her favourite show Georgia’s Got Talent at her godmother's house near the Black Sea.
She noticed that the little girl on the TV looked exactly like her and asked her mother about it.
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Her reply: "Everyone has a doppelganger."
"Everyone was calling my mum and asking: 'Why is Amy dancing under another name?'" Amy told the BBC.
Seven years later, she shared a video of herself getting her eyebrow pierced on TikTok.
That's when 19-year-old Ano was sent the clip by a friend, thinking at the time: "Cool that she looks like me."
This sparked Ano to go on the search for the almost identical looking teenager.
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After sharing the video on a university WhatsApp group, someone who knew Amy was able to connect the pair on Facebook.
As the two exchanged stories, they realised they had a lot more in common than just looks.
Arranging to meet a week later, they saw each other in person for the very first time at the top of the escalator at Rustaveli metro station in Tbilisi.
"It was like looking in a mirror, the exact same face, exact same voice. I am her and she is me," Amy said.
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"I don't like hugs, but I hugged her," Ano added.
Once they confronted their families, the duo were told that 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', while Amy felt like her whole life had been a lie.
The pair were illegally adopted at birth, although their adoptive families claim they didn't know the girls were twins or that buying babies was illegal. The BBC reports that they also refused to disclose how much they paid for them.
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The twin sisters were later connected with their biological mother, Aza, through a Facebook group, which was run by journalist Tamuna Museridze.
Their mum told the girls that when she woke up from a coma after giving birth, the hospital said that her babies had died.
Speaking of the alleged 'baby black market', Tamuna - who also found out she was adopted - said: "The scale is unimaginable, up to 100,000 babies were stolen. It was systemic."
The Georgian government changed its adoption legislation in 2005 and strengthened it further in 2006, making illegal adoptions more difficult.
The BBC approached the Georgian Interior Ministry for further information but was told that specific details would not be released due to data protection.