This week, a team of specialists from the IPN’s Office of Search and Identification began works at a military base in Batumi (Georgia). So far, the skeletal remains of nearly 150 people have been found in the location where Soviet troops once stationed. The team expects to unearth the remains of another few dozen people, including Polish citizens - victims of the Soviet terror of 1937-38 (the so-called Polish operation),during the sixth stage of works.

So far, six mass graves have been discovered at the site. Five of them were examined in 2017 and 2021. The skeletal remains found in the sixth grave are currently being exhumed.

The IPN’s team of specialists began archaeological works on 24 January 2022. A mass grave was discovered in the explored area in which, according to a preliminary anthropological assessment, the remains of nearly 30 people may be located. Due to difficult weather conditions (low temperatures, heavy snowfall and rain), a makeshift barrack has been built to enable archaeological works. As in previous years, skulls with gunshot marks were revealed. The characteristics of the gunshot wounds indicate that what we are dealing with are the so-called ‘Katyn method’ executions. In order to accelerate the decomposition process, the victims' bodies were covered with a large amount of lime, which is visible on the surface of the entire death pit.

Due to the fact that so far six mass graves have been discovered in this area, there is a high probability that other graves may be located in their immediate vicinity. Therefore, parallel to the exhumation works, extensive archaeological research with the use of heavy equipment is being carried out.

The search for the remains of victims of communist terror in Batumi began in 2017, thanks to the efforts of Sr. Sidonia Darchia, the Superior of the local monastery and orphanage. Four graves were discovered, from which the remains of 150 people were exhumed and secured.

In the following years, specialists from two American universities in Texas and Michigan were involved in the exploration works. It was they who in August 2021 discovered the remains of 28 people in the fifth mass burial site.

The initiator and main organizer of the current phase of works is the Diocese of Batumi and Lazeti and Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), a Georgian NGO based in Tbilisi. Representatives of the Georgian army are also participating in the works.

In the autonomous republic of Adjara alone, nearly 1,050 people, including Polish citizens, could have lost their lives as a result of Stalinist repressions.