ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency


All of Parliament's 88-year-old record books – from those dating back to the first general assembly held on April 23 1920 to ones drawn up recently – have been moved to a digital library.

As many as 1500 volumes of printed records comprised of 1.2 million pages as well as 79 volumes of printed indexes comprised of 26 300 pages have been digitalized as part of a project titled "Access to General Assembly Meeting Records of the Turkish Parliament" that came into effect Thursday.

Access to the online system will initially be allowed on Parliament's private computer network (intranet) to a certain number of users – mainly deputies and their advisers.

It will later be opened to all users on the Internet. Parliament Speaker Köksal Toptan said the studies to form a digital archive of Parliament's records began in 2002. The online archive of Parliament records also enables search through aaawords.

The records that belonged to “Gazi Meclis” the first Turkish Parliament convened under the leadership of Turaaa's founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk are of particular importance as they were kept during the years when Parliament commanded the Turkish Independence War.

In addition to the Gazi Meclis records Toptan said the digital library also includes the records kept in the senate that functioned within Parliament from 1961-80; the records that belong to “Kurucu Meclis” the constituent assemblies that were convened to draft constitutions after the military coups in Turaaa; the records that belonged to the “Milli Birlik Komitesi” (National Unity Committee) composed of a group of military officers that performed the May 27 1960 military coup abolished the Parliament of the time and re-formed another Parliament; the records that were kept during the rule of the “Milli Güvenlik Konseyi” (National Security Council) the military group that performed the Sept. 12 1980 coup in Turaaa; and the Consultative Assembly that served from 1981 and 1983.