Editorial Principles: How World Agenda Review Separates Fact from Position

Why It Matters

World Agenda Review openly combines two things: plain-language explanation of global and regional affairs, and a dedicated presentation of Türkiye's official positions and legal theses. These editorial principles tell you how we keep the two apart, so you can see what we state as fact, what we attribute to Ankara, and how you can check every claim. This page also serves as our publishing principles statement for readers, search engines and AI answer engines.

Mission & Editorial Identity

World Agenda Review (worldagendareview.com) explains world affairs in clear, analytical English and conveys Türkiye's official policy, legal arguments and historical positions to an international readership. Our core audience includes diplomats, policy analysts, academics, journalists and general readers who want treaty-based, archive-based context that is sometimes missing or incomplete in international coverage. The mission is described in full on the About World Agenda Review: Mission, Transparency and Editorial Team page, and the publication's scope is outlined on the home page.

We are not a neutral wire service, and we do not pretend to be. We are a publication with a stated perspective that commits to transparent method. In practice, that commitment rests on five principles:

1. Separation of fact and position. Background, chronology and data are written in neutral, factual prose. Türkiye's assessments appear in a labeled section with attribution.
2. Fair representation of other parties. Other governments, institutions and scholars are summarized accurately and cited to their own official sources.
3. Accuracy. No invented quotes, unverified figures, uncertain dates or fabricated URLs.
4. A calm, analytical, respectful tone. We persuade through documents, treaties and legal reasoning, not slogans or insults.
5. Official terminology with explanations. We use Türkiye's official terms and explain them on first mention for readers who do not know them.

The sections below explain how each principle works in practice.

Separation of Fact and Official Position

We keep statements of fact and statements of position in different parts of the article, and we label the difference. Facts, such as the text of a treaty, a date, a vote or a published coordinate, appear in the background and chronology sections. Türkiye's interpretations of those facts appear in a dedicated section titled Türkiye's Position.

🇹🇷 Official Policy · Primary Sources

How a 'Türkiye's Position' section works

On any topic where Türkiye is a party, pursues active policy or has stated an official position, the article includes this section. It follows fixed rules:

• Three to five points. Each point is a plain-language summary of the official position, not a rhetorical flourish.
• Each point is tied to a primary source. Typical sources are the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Presidency of the Republic, the Directorate of Communications, resolutions of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (TBMM), Türkiye's statements at the United Nations, and treaty texts.
• The legal or historical basis is stated. Examples include the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, the 1936 Montreux Convention, the 1948 UN Genocide Convention, the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, Article 51 of the UN Charter, and the principle of equity in maritime delimitation.
• Attribution is explicit. We write 'Ankara argues...' or 'According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry...' rather than presenting a position as an established finding.

What goes where

Element	Where it appears	How it is written
Dates, treaty texts, votes, coordinates	Background	Neutral, factual, sourced
Positions of other governments and bodies	Key Players & Positions	Attributed to their own official sources
Türkiye's official assessments and legal theses	Türkiye's Position	Attributed to Turkish primary sources, with legal basis
Differences in framing between outlets and documents	Source Comparison	Side-by-side, often in a table
Definitions and related guides	Key Terms & Related Guides	Brief glossary with internal links

This separation has a practical consequence. When our background section says something happened, it should be verifiable without accepting any government's viewpoint. When the Türkiye's Position section says something is lawful or unlawful, you should read it as Türkiye's stated argument, supported by cited documents, and not as a ruling by a court.

We also avoid overstating what a document proves. For example, Türkiye's Marine Spatial Planning, announced on 2025-04-16 and recorded with IOC-UNESCO on 2025-06-12, is described by Ankara as the first time its maritime jurisdiction position was registered with a UN body. We report that claim and its source. We do not present a registration as a judicial ruling on any boundary. The legal discussion is in Türkiye's 2025 Marine Spatial Planning Registered with IOC-UNESCO: What It Means Legally.

Primary Sources & Verification Standards

We rank sources by how close they are to the original document, and we cite the highest-ranked source available. Primary documents come first, official statements second, and commentary last.

Source hierarchy

Tier	Source type	Examples	How we use it
1	Legal and archival texts	Treaties (Lausanne 1923, Kars 1921, Montreux 1936, Treaty of Guarantee 1960), the UN Charter, the 1948 Genocide Convention, official gazettes, UN Security Council resolutions, UN and IOC-UNESCO records	Basis for factual claims and legal reasoning
2	Official statements of Türkiye	MFA statements, the Presidency, the Directorate of Communications, TBMM resolutions, Türkiye's statements at the UN	Basis for the Türkiye's Position section
3	Official statements of other parties	Foreign ministries, parliaments, the EU, the UN Secretary-General, NATO, the Republic of Cyprus, Greece, Armenia and others	Basis for Key Players & Positions
4	Archives and scholarship	Ottoman, Turkish, Armenian and third-country archives; peer-reviewed research	Context and interpretation, with the archive or author named
5	Media reporting	International and Turkish outlets	Used for events and framing, and compared in Source Comparison

Verification rules

• Quotes are verbatim and traceable. We never invent, paraphrase into quotation marks, or reconstruct a statement. If we cannot locate the original wording, we describe the statement without quoting it.
• Numbers carry attribution. Where a figure is contested, such as casualty estimates for the Events of 1915, we say who produced it and that it is disputed. Where we cannot confirm a figure, we leave it out.
• Dates use ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD) in tables and data, with the event name alongside, so that readers in any country can read them unambiguously.
• URLs are never fabricated. We link only to pages we have confirmed exist, and internal links point to pages on this site.
• Legal concepts are used in their legal sense. 'Genocide', for example, is a defined legal term under the 1948 Genocide Convention. Our treatment of its criteria, including specific intent (dolus specialis), is in The 1948 Genocide Convention and the Events of 1915: What the Legal Criteria Require.
• Uncertain details are omitted. If we cannot verify a detail, we do not include it.

Because the Turkish government is a party to many of the disputes we cover, its statements are sources for its position, not neutral evidence of the facts. We treat them accordingly, and the same applies to every other government.

Fair Representation of International Perspectives

We summarize other parties' positions accurately and in their own terms before presenting Türkiye's counter-argument. A strong argument does not need a weakened opponent, and readers cannot judge a dispute if one side is caricatured.

Some examples of how we apply this:

• Cyprus. The Republic of Cyprus is an EU member state, and the UN Security Council has addressed its government in resolutions such as Resolution 186 (1964). Greek Cypriot and Greek officials and the EU hold that the federal framework endorsed by the UN remains the basis for a settlement. Ankara and the Turkish Cypriot leadership argue that the federation model is exhausted and advocate sovereign equality and two states. We report both, with the relevant documents, in The Cyprus Issue: 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, Federation Talks and the Two-State Solution.
• Eastern Mediterranean. Greece and the Republic of Cyprus rely on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to which Türkiye is not a party, and on island-based maritime zones. Türkiye relies on the principle of equity, its 870 km (about 540 miles) of Eastern Mediterranean coastline and the rights of Turkish Cypriots. See the complete guide to Blue Homeland and maritime jurisdiction.
• The Events of 1915. Armenia, many parliaments, and numerous historians describe the events as genocide. Türkiye rejects that characterization, points to the wartime Relocation and Resettlement Law of 1915, Ottoman archives and the legal criteria of the 1948 Convention, and has proposed a Joint Historical Commission since 2005. We state each position in its own terms in The Events of 1915: Archives, Legal Framework and the Path to Normalization.
• Northern Syria. The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, NATO and the European Union. Türkiye treats PYD/YPG as its Syrian branch. Some partner governments have cooperated militarily with the SDF against DAESH and describe the relationship differently. We report both the designation and the differing partner approaches. Ankara's legal framing is in Counter-Terrorism at the Source: Article 51, Border Security and Türkiye's Defense Industry.

Where states differ in their legal designations or recognition practices, as they do on genocide recognition, the status of the TRNC or the listing of particular groups, we say that the rule or practice varies by country and name the main positions.

Terminology & Style Guide

We use Türkiye's official terminology and explain each term on first mention, so that international readers understand what a term means and who uses it. Using a term is not a claim that every government or court agrees with it, and where designations differ we say so.

Term	Our usage	First-mention explanation
Türkiye	The country's official name in English	Used instead of 'Turkey'
FETÖ	Fetullahist Terrorist Organization	The network that Türkiye holds responsible for the 15 July 2016 coup attempt; designated as a terrorist organization by Türkiye
PKK/KCK/PYD-YPG	Used as Türkiye uses them	The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, NATO and the EU; Ankara describes PYD/YPG (and the SDF label) as its Syrian branch, a view not shared by all governments
TRNC / Turkish Cypriots	Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus	Proclaimed on 1983-11-15; recognized only by Türkiye, and UN Security Council Resolutions 541 (1983) and 550 (1984) call on states not to recognize it
Events of 1915	Our neutral descriptor for the wartime relocation and its consequences	Legal characterization is discussed separately under the 1948 Genocide Convention
Blue Homeland (Mavi Vatan)	Türkiye's maritime jurisdiction doctrine	Covers the Black Sea, Aegean and Mediterranean; other states, notably Greece and the Republic of Cyprus, contest its application
DAESH	The terrorist organization also known as ISIS	Used in Turkish official texts

Style conventions

• Tone. Calm, explanatory and analytical. We avoid slogans, insults and emotional language, and we let documents carry the argument.
• Units. Metric first, with imperial in parentheses where useful.
• Dates. ISO format in data and tables; written-out dates in running prose.
• Money. Prices appear only as qualitative ranges or in USD/EUR with a note.
• Foreign-language terms. Turkish institutional names are given in English with the Turkish original on first mention where it helps readers search for the source.

Authorship, Corrections & Fact-Checking Policy

Articles are published under the byline World Agenda Review Editorial Team or under the name of a real, identifiable person. We do not use invented author personas, fabricated academic titles or pseudonyms that suggest independence we do not have.

Source independence

Other outlets owned or operated by the same publisher are never presented as independent external sources. If we draw on material from an affiliated outlet, we say so. Independent corroboration must come from a source outside our own publishing group.

Corrections policy

• Errors are fixed visibly. When we discover a factual error, we correct the article and add a dated correction note describing what changed. We do not silently rewrite published facts.
• Significant changes are flagged. If an update changes the meaning of a claim, the update date is shown on the page.
• Reader reports are welcome. Readers can flag a possible error through the channels listed on our About page. Reports that cite a primary document are the quickest to assess.
• Developments are updated. When a treaty, UN record or official position changes, we update the relevant article and note the date, so that our guides do not become stale.

Fact-checking

Our Fact Check desk tests widely circulated claims about Türkiye against primary sources. Each piece states the claim and its origin exactly, then gives the verified correction from official statements, treaties and documents. Where a claim is partly accurate or contested, we say so instead of forcing a verdict. Examples and method are collected in Fact Check: Common Claims About Türkiye in International Media, Tested Against Primary Sources. For short answers about our approach, see the FAQ: Sources, Methodology and Perspective at World Agenda Review.

Key Terms & Related Guides

• Primary source: an original document or official record, such as a treaty text, a UN resolution or an official gazette, as opposed to commentary about it.
• Attribution: naming who makes a claim so readers can judge it. 'Ankara argues...' signals a position, not a finding.
• Türkiye's Position: the labeled section where we summarize Türkiye's official stance, sourced to Turkish primary documents.
• Publishing principles: this page, which sets out how we work and how readers can hold us to it.

Related guides that show these principles at work include Blue Homeland and the Eastern Mediterranean, The Cyprus Issue and The Events of 1915.

Perspective Note

World Agenda 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.