Will Disputable Child Be Sold In Turkey?

Forty-five-year-old Nana, who is a disabled person of the first group, applied to the Prosecutor’s office to assist her to return her three-year-old child. Law enforcers launched a case on illegal adoption of a child; however, there is a doubt that the mother, who lives together with a Turkish man, wants to sell her child.

In 1999, Nana went to Turkey to work. In 2003 she returned to Georgia to take Chinese treatment. After a thrombus, her left limbs became motionless. “In 2004, I turned up in the Gurjaani maternity house quite by chance. I did not know that I was pregnant. After the child was born, strange people used to visit me in my hospital chamber and offered me to give them my child as I could not bring him up for my illness. They offered me 1 000 USD for the purpose. Initially I refused them, however, finally I made a deal with Marika N. to give her my child, and according to the deal she was to return me my child if I recovered in future. I had not agreed the decision with my husband who is Turkish citizen. Only my neighbors knew about it and G. Glurjidze was fully aware of the situation.

A birth certificate was necessary in order to take the child from the hospital. Marika arranged everything. She took a certificate from the Gurjaani Civil Acts Registration Department and we left the hospital. They met me at the entrance of the hospital in a car and took my child away,” said Nana D. in her conversation with the Human Rights Center.

Several weeks after the birth, the mother demanded her child back via her neighbor Glurjidze. Nana said that adopted parents did not refuse her to return her child. “They sent me a message that I could take my child back after I have returned them the money they had spent on the child’s birth certificate, hospital and other expenses. I agreed with them. I sold valuable things from house to pay the money, but they did not return me the child. I was bothering Glurjidze as a mediator, but she could not reach any results. If I had returned my child, I would have taken him to Turkey. I was deceiving the father of the child, Omer Albairak who lives in Turkish town of Rize-Finkideli. He knew that the baby was with me and asked me to take the child to him.”

“In April, I went to Turkey. I told Omer I had left the child with my brother and sister-in-law…In July 2005 my husband sent me back to Georgian and ordered to take the child to Sarfi border and he would manage to take the child from there. I appealed to the court and demanded my child back. During the discussion of the case, the judge told me the situation looked like a criminal fact and he sent the case-materials to the prosecutor’s office,” said Nana who added that after that in 2006 she went to Turkey, where she joined forty-one-year-old Omer Albairak who is not her legal husband.  

Having arrived in Georgia, Nana and Omer appealed to the Gurjaani district prosecutor’s office. A criminal case was launched under the Georgian Criminal Code, Article 172 on illegal adoption of a child. Beso Shaishmelashvili, an investigator for the Internal Ministry’s Gurjaani Department, was put in charge of investigation. The investigator refused to comment on the case in the interest of investigation. The applicant has some complaints about him. “Shaishmelashvili is indifferent to our problem…He showed me some papers and asked whether it was signed by me. I confirmed that it was my signiture.  I remember the adopted parents having made me sign some empty papers because they said they needed it for birth certificate. Later on, they turned it into a contract letter that is singed by me,’ said Nana.

“As I am a disabled and my limbs are motionless, I cannot bring up my child and I give him according to my own wish,” the contract states.

As we have found out, Marika N. gave the child to her brother and sister-in-law who did not have their own child.

“She wants her child back to sell him in Turkey, she said it herself. She has appealed against us for the second time. Nana gave us the child according to her own wish. Her neighbor Glurjidze brought the child to us. Nana asked her neighbor not to give her pregnancy away because her older son did not know about it anything. Initially, Nana told Glurjidze to wrap up the baby in cellophane and throw him away… We paid all hospital bills. Glurjidze gave some money to Nana’s daughter to pay the doctors as well. They made me buy everything what was necessary.”

“Why should I give her the baby whom she gave us deliberately? She wanted to throw that child away. She wants the child to sell in Turkey and by the way she does not hide her intentions. Nana said that if she gets child back, she would take her to Turkey. Georgian children are taken to Turkey to sell them for good money. Nevertheless, she could not look after a baby because of her illness and how can she bring him up as her health conditions have worsened?” said Marika N. who added that they are not going to return the child.

Noshrevan Kelekhsashvili, a lawyer for the adopted parents, does not exclude the possibility of selling the child in Turkey if biological mother gains him back. “Under these circumstances, the child can be quite possibly sold in Turkey in future. The investigation will find out everything,’ said the lawyer.

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti