id-card

ID cards with micro chip are mandatory, but some believe they are a sign of the Antichrist. (Scene from the new commercial.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia’s Ministry of Justice has produced a six-minute commercial to explain that a new ID card with a micro chip is not a sign of the Antichrist, as many locals believe.

Clerics and part of the parish planned a rally at the Ministry of Justice on Sunday to demand alternative card instead of electric ones with micro chip. The former government started issuing new ID cards in August, 2011, and more than half a million citizens have them already.

Even though the Holy Synod of Georgia’s Orthodox Church explained that ID cards aren’t a sign of the Antichrist, many Christians still believe such cards to be against their religious views. Patriarchate also confirmed that it is normal to use the ID cards, but both appealed to the government to allow people to make a choice and have alternative cards if they do not want to have new ID cards.

The Justice Ministry’s commercial explains that new ID cards are a document for Georgian citizens to prove their identity with name, surname, citizenship, date and place of birth, sex, personal number, photo and issuer.

“Information is also kept on the so-called card, which is a memory card of ID and protects it from falsification,” a man explains in the commercial. “It is false that ID card is a sign of the Antichrist or that there is a beast mark on it.”

He also said that the public registry took obligation and none of the issued ID Cards have three numbers six in the row, and neither will this happen in the future.

Recently, Minister of Justice Thea Tsulukiani said on a talk show on Rustavi 2 that one of the conditions for negotiations with the EU is that Georgian citizens must have ID cards, but she said the problem was that the previous government started issuing new cards without explaining to people what was happening.

“An ID card is nothing more than a document of identity and it doesn’t contain any type of information which would give someone an opportunity to control us from the Cosmos,” she said, adding that the ministry is studying what complaints there are in society and may give people an option to choose alternative cards, but no decision has been made about this yet.