Turkish officials announced on Friday that the corpse of a Czarist officer of Polish origin, which was found in northeastern Turkey last year, has been buried.
The uniformed corpse of Lt. Col. Karl Karlovich Rjepetski was unearthed in northeastern Ardahan province in April 2017 during excavations to lay the foundation of a new building. Ardahan was occupied by Russians in the last days of the Ottoman Empire and was annexed later to modern-day Turkey. The body of the soldier, who died from illness in 1894 while serving in First Caucasus Army Corps' 20th Infantry Division, caused a diplomatic spat between Poland and Russia, both laying claim to the corpse, according to Turkish media outlets.
The corpse had been safeguarded in the Kars Museum. On Friday, an ambulance took the body to Ardahan's Malakanlar Cemetery where Russians lived in Ardahan, while it was under the control of Russia, were buried. Quoting Ardahan Governor Mehmet Emin Bilmez, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported that officials from Russia's consulate in the nearby Turkish province of Trabzon attended the burial.
