The present collection contains a few documents from the earliest period up to the reign of Sultan Süleyman in the sixteenth century.
[citation needed] Concurrent with these changes and additions, Turkish scholars took the first steps to classify and catalog the various collections beginning in the 1910s.
These early efforts produced a number of classified collections (tasnif) which are still cited according to the name of the scholar who created the catalog.
[7] The WikiLeaks cable 04ISTANBUL1074 classified and signed by David Arnett on July 4, 2004[8] at the Consulate General of the US in Istanbul states, that Turkey has eliminated incriminating documents concerning the Armenian genocide from the archives: According to Sabancı University Professor Halil Berktay, there were two serious efforts to purge the archives of any incriminating documents on the Armenian question.
Berktay believes a second purge was executed in conjunction with Ozal's efforts to open the archives by a group of retired diplomats and generals led by former Ambassador Muharrem Nuri Birgi.