I was separated from my twin brother at birth after my father sold me into an adoption ring. I had no idea until I saw a TikTok video
A WOMAN has told how she discovered she was separated from her twin sister at birth and sold through an illegal adoption ring.
Ano Sartania, 21, was stunned when she was reunited with her sister Amy thanks to a TikTok video but the real shock came when the couple found out they shared three more siblings.
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The couple, born in June 2002 in Kirtski, Georgiadiscovered that they had both been sold to an illegal alien in a twisted scheme adoption ring.
One of them grew up in the capital, while the other grew up in Zugdidi, Migrelia, on the Black Sea.
Despite being grateful to be reunited after 19 years, the duo is still searching for answers.
Ano told The Sun: “All my life, I thought, and I wanted to have a twin sister. Thank God I have her.
“So I spent my whole life wondering, 'It must be great if I had a twin sister.'
It all started when a friend of Ano's TikTok video of a woman who looked strikingly similar to Ano and sent it to her.
Ano said: “My friend found that video of her getting a piercing and sent it to me, she said, 'It's you.'
“And I said, 'It's not me, but it's me. So I was looking for that person, but I couldn't find her.'
The 21-year-old was eventually able to track Amy down and the first thing she texted her was: “How long have I been looking for you.”
The two met at Rustaveli station in Tbilisi – neither suspected they were related.
Recalling the moment they met, Ano said, “We just met because we look alike. And that was awkward because someone said to me, 'a girl looks just like you.
''You talk the same way, your movements, your voice, everything matches. And it was strange to me like looking in a mirror.
“It was awkward, it was amazing, it was everything.”
DUPLICATES
Now that the couple has had some time to meet each other, Ano said that even though they have different personalities, they feel like they have known each other for years.
She added: “I can say that even the first day we started talking I felt like I had known her for 90 years, I had known her all my life.
“It didn't feel like meeting a stranger.”
It was after they posted their photos Facebook that they discovered the truth when a family friend messaged Ano asking “did you find your sister?”
And DNA test results later confirmed that the two women were indeed twins.
But their revelations wouldn't end there.
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Ano and Amy had heard different stories about how they were separated at birth: one was told that their father had sold them shortly after their birth, while the other heard that they had been stolen from the maternity ward and then sold.
The twins shared their incredible reconnection story on a Facebook group – only to receive a message a few days later from a woman named Anna who was looking for her twin sisters.
The twins eventually discovered that they had not only one but three more siblings.
Georgian journalist Tamuna Museridze who was a victim of the illegal immigrants adoption ring, has helped hundreds of children reconnect with their biological families.
She discovered the truth about herself in 2016 after the death of her adoptive mother and founded the Facebook group “Vedzeb” (“I am looking”).
Tamuna, a strong supporter of the adoption-for-sale program, along with a group of eight other women, helped uncover the identities of 700 stolen women. babies in just two years.
FIGHT FOR INFORMATION
Despite her best efforts, she has still not been able to track down her birth parents, but she is determined not to give up.
Speaking about the twins' incredible story, Tamuna told The Sun: “I met Ano and Amy when they had already met and they were looking for their parents.
“They had different information because one girl was sold and the other girl was sold a month later. So now they didn't know the exact date of birth. One knew one last name and the other family knew another last name.”
With the group's help, the twins discovered that their mother, Aza Shoni, had had Lana (25), Nika (24) and Anna (22) before giving birth to them.
It didn't feel like meeting a stranger
Ano Sartania
Desperate for answers, the couple decided to travel there Germanywhere Aza lives, to meet their birth mother.
Aza says she was unconscious after giving birth and it wasn't until she woke up that she was told the twins had died.
The heartwarming moment the twins were reunited with their birth mother was captured by the BBC World service as part of the new documentary Betrayal at Birth: Georgia's Stolen Children.
Aza bursts into tears as she hugs the two women, saying, “I still can't believe it.”
Even though it is an emotional moment, Ano cannot contain her anger as she urges adoptive parents to be honest with their children.
She said: “It's hard – it's great that I've found my birth family.
'But it's quite difficult, because you don't know where you belong.
'Sometimes you don't know what to do with both families.
'We deserve to know everything about ourselves.
'To know what we are and what we should do with our lives.
“So if I have brothers and sisters, I need to know them, because they are like gifts from God, and you can just take them from me.”
Thousands of them babies this is believed to have been done illegally traded in Georgia since the 1950s.
After the fall of the USSRmany of those children were adopted by families in the US USA, Canada And Europe for thousands of dollars.
She told how a few years ago, a woman who was told her son had died at birth discovered that her son was very much alive: he had been sold to another part of the country.
Tamuna recalled how the woman had difficulty believing her when she first told her about her son, as her doctor at the time was essentially her godmother.
She told The Sun: “Her godmother helped her give birth to her son and told her the boy had died.
It's quite difficult because you don't know where you belong
“So we went through this woman, and she didn't believe us at first.
“She said it wasn't the truth because her godmother would never do that to her”
After repeated pleas, the woman finally agreed to one DNA test that confirmed that the boy was indeed her biological son.
The Georgian government has launched a new investigation into child trafficking, but Tamuna says she has received no answers so far.
She said: “The biggest problem is the Georgians law.
“Because adopted children do not have the right to get information about themselves, and they do not have the right to get their birth certificate, and they do not have the right to have their name, surname, birth, place and date of birth.”
BBC World Service: Betrayal At Birth: Georgia's Stolen Children is available on BBC iPlayer
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