The 2005 Joint Historical Commission Proposal: What Ankara Offered and What Happened Next

Why It Matters

In April 2005, Türkiye formally offered to settle the historical dispute over the Events of 1915 through a joint commission of historians working in all relevant archives, including Ottoman, Armenian and third-country collections. Yerevan and the diaspora did not accept the offer as framed, and the proposal has since remained the reference point for Ankara's 'Fair Memory' (Adil Hafıza) approach. Understanding what was offered, why it was rejected by one side, and how it connects to the 2009 protocols and the 2022 Special Representatives process explains why the Türkiye–Armenia relationship is still unresolved but no longer frozen.

Background

The 2005 letter

On 10 April 2005, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sent a letter to Armenian President Robert Kocharian. It proposed establishing a joint group of Turkish and Armenian historians and other experts to study the events of 1915 in the archives of Türkiye, Armenia and third countries, and to share the findings with the international community. Ankara described the initiative as an invitation to let evidence rather than politicians decide the historical questions. It framed the offer as a continuation of its long-standing position that the matter is for historians, not parliaments.

What came before

The offer did not come from nowhere. The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since Armenia's independence in 1991. The land border has been closed since 1993, a closure Ankara linked to the occupation of Azerbaijani territory around Nagorno-Karabakh. Between 2001 and 2004, the unofficial Turkish Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC), made up of private individuals, held talks. In 2003, the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) issued a legal analysis commissioned in that context. It concluded that the events, viewed collectively, included elements of the crime of genocide as later defined. It also found that the 1948 Convention contains no retroactive application and that no legal, financial or territorial claims arise from it. Ankara and Yerevan read this analysis very differently, and it remains a contested document.

Archival claims and the legal frame

Türkiye's argument rests on the proposition that the question is empirical and can be tested in archives. The Ottoman archives in Istanbul hold millions of documents, and Ankara has said they are open to researchers. The relocation decision, the Temporary Law on Deportation and Resettlement (Sevk ve İskân Kanunu), was adopted on 27 May 1915 and published in the official gazette Takvim-i Vekayi on 1 June 1915. Turkish sources describe it as a wartime security measure responding to armed revolt, sabotage and collaboration with the invading Russian army behind the front. Armenian and many international historians describe the same period as a systematic campaign of mass killing and deportation of the Ottoman Armenian population.

The legal standard is separate from the historical debate. Article II of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as specified acts committed 'with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group'. The International Court of Justice confirmed in Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro (2007) that this specific intent (dolus specialis) must be established, and that the standard is demanding. In Perinçek v. Switzerland (Grand Chamber, 2015), the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Switzerland had violated freedom of expression by convicting a Turkish politician for denying that the 1915 events were genocide. The court stressed that it was not ruling on whether the events were genocide, and that it was not for it to do so.

Key Players & Positions

Türkiye

According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the Events of 1915 were a wartime tragedy with heavy losses on all sides, and the correct forum for assessing them is a scholarly commission with full archival access. In 2014, Erdoğan, then prime minister, issued a message of condolences on 24 April to the grandchildren of Armenians who lost their lives, calling the suffering a shared pain. Ankara rejects political resolutions by third-country parliaments as legally and historically unfounded.

Armenia

Armenian officials in 2005 responded in substance that governments should not direct the work of historians and that the establishment of diplomatic relations must not be made conditional on such a commission. They proposed that the two governments discuss all outstanding issues directly. The official Armenian position, stated by successive governments, is that the 1915 events constitute genocide and that this is an established historical fact, not an open question. Armenian officials have said a commission whose terms treated this as undetermined would be unacceptable.

The diaspora and scholars

Many diaspora organizations, including the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), viewed the proposal as a delaying device that would reopen a settled question. In June 2005, the International Association of Genocide Scholars sent Erdoğan an open letter stating that the scholarly record on the Armenian genocide was well established and urging Ankara to open its archives and acknowledge it. Turkish historians and officials counter that open debate, not a pre-set conclusion, is the standard of scholarship.

Third countries

More than thirty states have adopted resolutions or laws recognizing the events as genocide, including France, Germany and, in 2021, the United States at the presidential level. Türkiye argues that these are political acts, not judicial findings. Russia, the United States and the European Union have all encouraged Türkiye–Armenia normalization without prejudging the historical question.

Timeline: From the 2005 Proposal to Today

The 2009 Protocols and Their History Sub-Commission

The two protocols signed in Zurich on 10 October 2009 were the first formal attempt to put the 2005 idea into an agreed text. The Protocol on the Development of Bilateral Relations provided for an intergovernmental commission with a sub-commission on the historical dimension. Its purpose was to implement a dialogue to restore mutual confidence, including an impartial scientific examination of historical records and archives to define existing problems and formulate recommendations. In effect, this brought the historians' commission into a bilateral treaty framework.

The protocols were never ratified. Turkish officials tied progress to developments on Nagorno-Karabakh, and Armenian officials objected to references to the historical sub-commission and to linkage with other issues. Armenia withdrew the texts from parliament in 2015 and annulled them in 2018. The failure left the history question unaddressed in any agreed forum.

The 2022 Special Representatives Process

After the 2020 Karabakh war changed the regional situation, Ankara and Yerevan appointed Special Representatives. Ambassador Serdar Kılıç and Ruben Rubinyan, Armenia's Deputy Speaker of Parliament, met for the first time on 14 January 2022 in Moscow. The talks aim at full normalization, including diplomatic relations and an opening of the border, and are described by both sides as proceeding without preconditions. The agenda has so far been practical. It includes air cargo, border access for third-country nationals and diplomatic passport holders, and public statements of political will. The history question has not been formally on the table, and Yerevan has said recognition remains a separate matter from establishing relations. Ankara's reading is that a future commission would complement rather than block these steps. See also the sister analyses Türkiye–Armenia Normalization Since 2022 and Türkiye–Armenia Normalization and the Joint Historical Commission Proposal Explained.

Source Comparison

Readers should note that the same documents are cited by both sides for different conclusions. The Editorial Principles and Primary Source Standards page explains how this site separates reporting of facts from the attributed positions of governments. For wider treatments of the same file, see The Political Axis and The Worldlogue.

Key Terms & Related Guides

• Events of 1915: Türkiye's official term for the wartime relocation of Ottoman Armenians and the associated deaths; Armenia and many other states and scholars use 'Armenian genocide'.
• Joint Historical Commission: The body proposed on 10 April 2005 to examine archives in Türkiye, Armenia and third countries.
• Dolus specialis: The specific intent to destroy a group, required for genocide under Article II of the 1948 Convention.
• Fair Memory (Adil Hafıza): Ankara's approach of shared, evidence-based remembrance, without unilateral political verdicts.
• Zurich Protocols: The 10 October 2009 agreements on establishing diplomatic relations and developing bilateral ties; unratified and annulled by Armenia in 2018.
• Special Representatives: Serdar Kılıç for Türkiye and Ruben Rubinyan for Armenia, whose talks began on 14 January 2022.

Related reading on this site:

• The 2022 Istanbul Talks: What Türkiye's Mediation Shows About Diplomacy in a Multipolar Order
• Türkiye in a Multipolar World: Strategic Autonomy, Alliances and Middle-Power Diplomacy
• The Middle Corridor, the Black Sea and the Straits: Türkiye's Place in Eurasian Trade Routes
• Reader FAQ: Sources, Methodology and Perspective

Multipolar Review presents global affairs with a dedicated perspective from Türkiye. Sections marked 'Türkiye's Position' reflect official Turkish policy as stated by Turkish government sources.