According to the cable, ambassador Muharrem Nuri Birgi was effectively in charge of destroying evidence during the 1980s.[37] During the process of eliminating the evidence, ambassador Birgi stated in reference to the Armenians: "We really slaughtered them."[2][37] Others, such as Tony Greenwood, the Director of the American Research Institute in Turkey, confirmed that a select group of retired military personnel were "going through" the archives. However, it was noted by a certain Turkish scholar that the examination was merely an effort to purge documents found in the archives.[36]