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23.03.2018

Experts from the Office of Search and Identification under the leadership of Professor Krzysztof Szwagrzyk, Deputy President of the Institute of National Remembrance, carry out exploration work in Georgia

On 20-23 March, Professor Krzysztof Szwagrzyk, Deputy President of the Institute of National Remembrance, was in Georgia, where he supervised exploratory work conducted by a Polish team of specialists from the IPN’s Office of Search and Identification and the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Wrocław.

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The project is the result of cooperation between the Institute of National Remembrance and the Academy of the Ministry of the Internal Affairs in Georgia and aims at discovering secret burial places of the victims of Soviet repressions in Georgia.
 

The activities carried out combine archaeological, exhumation and identification work. On 22 March this year, Giorgi Gakharia, Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia, visited the place of exploration work carried out by the experts of the IPN’s Office of Search and Identification in Tbilisi. During the meeting with Professor Krzysztof Szwagrzyk and Omar Tushurashvili, director of the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, the Minister thanked for the support of such an extremely valuable initiative by the Institute of National Remembrance. Professor Krzysztof Szwagrzyk offered help in the further implementation of the work, as well as the readiness of the Polish side to share their expertise and knowledge. He stressed that the search should be conducted under the auspices of the Georgian state. He also drew attention to the painful history common to Poland and Georgia, which remains unsettled. exploratory work can be seen as an element of coming to terms with the past, which can be seen as a form of compensation of the victims and their relatives.

In addition, the representatives of the Institute of National Remembrance went to Kutaisi, where preliminary arrangements were made regarding the Soviet labor camp operating in this area. Professor Szwagrzyk held a meeting devoted to the issue with the deputy mayor of Kutaisi, Nino Tvaltvadze.

 

The Polish and Georgian sides will continue the exploration work. The current phase of the project will be summarized by a report showing the current state of research and a list of recommendations and guidelines necessary for its further implementation, which will be prepared by the experts. Georgian students of archeology are also participating in the works headed by the representatives of the IPN Office of Search and Identification.

 

As part of the visit, the IPN representatives also met with the vice-chancellor of the Academy of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs, they had an opportunity to see the archival and digitization department as well as the internal museum consisting of a section devoted to archival holdings and particular police formations.

 


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