On October 19, 2017, a member of the Alliance of Patriots, Vaja Otarashvili made a xenophobic statement against the individuals with Asian identity on air at TV Obiektivi, by saying that they change their names and surnames with Georgian ones on the basis of residence permit. As the representative of the Alliance of Patriots evaluates, it all could result in a loss of the Georgian identity.
Vaja Otarashvili: “Foreign nationals are being massively immigrated and given residence permits. Go, see it with your own eyes! Go to the House of Justice on any day!.. You will see that 80% of [applicants] are foreigners. Surnames and names of the Chinese, the Hindu and the Arabs are being actively changed and look what it will lead to – Georgia, as a country of Georgians, will be no more, dear friends!”
Mr Otarashvili’s statement is a lie, as having a residence permit in Georgia is not a sufficient basis for the foreign nationals to register for changing their name or surname to the Georgian ones.
The Article 62 of the Law of Georgia on Civil Status Acts, as well as the Article 46 of the Ordinance of the Minister of Justice on the Approval of the Registration Rule of Civil Status Acts regulates the issue of the right to change name and surname. According to the given Law, the following set of individuals can change their name and/or surname:
- Citizen of Georgia;
- A non-citizen with a permanent residence permit in Georgia, whose birth is registered in Georgia;
Law of Georgia on Civil Status Acts: “Any citizen of Georgia as well as a stateless person having status in Georgia, whose birth has been registered in Georgia (except for the birth registration conducted in accordance with Article 85 of this Law), shall have the right to change his/her first name and/or surname.”
Ordinance of the Minister of Justice on the Approval of the Registration Rule of Civil Status Acts: “The basis for the registration for changing the name and/or surname is an application of a citizen of Georgia or a non-citizen, whose birth is registered in Georgia. The head of the agency approves the form of the application”.
Therefore, in order for the Chinese, the Hindu and the French to be able to register for a Georgian name and surname, they should either be citizens of Georgia, or, in case of being a non-citizen, be born in Georgia. Foreign citizens who legally entered Georgia with the study, work or other purposes and who have the respective residence permit, are not authorized to change their name and surname with the Georgian one.
About the source:
Alliance of Patriots is represented with six mandates in the Parliament of Georgia as a result of 2016 Parliamentary Elections. The party is connected with TV Obiektivi and, just like the given media outlet, disseminates xenophobic and anti-Western messages.
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