Turkish Foreign Ministry opens its diplomatic archives for researchers

Sevil ERKUŞ ANKARA

Turkey has opened the Foreign Ministry’s archives to researchers. The ministry’s archives since 1919 will be opened to professionals through a private password.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Naci Koru announced the move in an article posted in his private blog http://nkoru.blogspot.com.tr/

“For the first time in history of the Republic [of Turkey], the ministry is undertaking an effort that will open its entire archives of Foreign Affairs since 1919 for the use of researchers,” Koru said.

The ministry is on the point of finalizing transferring archives into digital media, he added.

“As of next year, we will put our diplomatic archive, transferred to digital media, into the service of researchers,” Koru noted.

Some 25 million documents, which cover political relations between Turkey and foreign countries, will be transferred to digital media up until the end of 2015.

Nearly 65 percent of the documents are not classified and a committee is working to declassify the rest of the documents.