Editorial Principles and Primary-Source Standards at States Outlook

Mission & Editorial Identity

States Outlook (statesoutlook.com) is an international analysis publication that explains what states do, on what legal basis, and where their positions are heading, while presenting Türkiye's strategic and legal perspective to a worldwide readership. This page is our publishing-principles statement and is referenced as such in the site's structured data (schema.org publishingPrinciples).

Our readers are policymakers, diplomats, international lawyers, academics, think-tank analysts, journalists and defence-and-security professionals who want to understand state behaviour through documents rather than slogans. For the site's purpose and team, see About States Outlook: Mission, Perspective and Editorial Team.

The site covers six areas:

• State Doctrines: Türkiye's Blue Homeland (Mavi Vatan), Terror-Free Türkiye and multidimensional foreign policy.
• Maritime & Eastern Med Outlook: maritime jurisdiction, UNCLOS debates and the 2025 IOC-UNESCO registration.
• Cyprus & Guarantor Law: the 1960 treaties and the sovereign-equality, two-state outlook.
• Security & Defense Industry: Article 51 of the UN Charter, counter-terrorism and national defence production.
• History & Archives: the Events of 1915, the 1948 Genocide Convention criteria and archival evidence.
• Fact Check: claims tested against primary sources.

The publication has a declared perspective. We say so openly, and these principles exist so that readers can always tell what is documented fact, what is an attributed position and what is our analysis.

Separation of Fact and Official Position

Background, chronology and data are written in neutral, factual prose. Türkiye's assessments appear only in a dedicated, clearly labelled section and are always attributed to a named official source. This is the central rule of the site.

Three registers, kept apart

Primary Sources & Verification Standards

We rank evidence in a stated hierarchy, and we prefer the document itself to anyone's description of it. The closer a source is to the original act, text or record, the more weight it carries.

The primary-source hierarchy

Verification rules

• Official statements prove positions, not contested facts. A ministry statement is first-rate evidence of what a government argues. It is not, by itself, proof of a disputed event. We say which one we are citing it for.
• Government-supplied figures are labelled as such. Operational or casualty figures released by any government, including Türkiye's, are attributed to the releasing body. Hard data such as referendum results is cited to the official or UN record. The 2004 Cyprus referendum figures (64.91% 'Yes' among Turkish Cypriots and 75.83% 'No' among Greek Cypriots) are an example. See The Annan Plan Referendum of 2004 for how we handle them.
• Dates and numbers must trace to a source. If we cannot confirm a date, figure or name against a reliable source, we leave it out.
• No invented quotes, statistics or URLs. Quotation marks are used only for words we have verified in their original form. Links point only to pages that exist.
• Links wherever available. Treaties, UN documents, archives and court records are linked in the article when a stable public version exists. Where the primary source is not publicly accessible, we say so.
• Translations are flagged. Where we translate from Turkish or another language, the translation is ours unless an official translation is cited.

Fair Representation of International Perspectives

We summarise other states' and institutions' positions accurately, in their own terms and with attribution to their own official sources, before presenting Türkiye's counter-argument. A strong argument does not need a distorted opponent, and a reader who cannot recognise their own side's case in our summary has a legitimate complaint.

In practice this means:

• Maritime delimitation. Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration argue that islands generate maritime zones under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and the EU institutions have backed them politically. We present that case from their official statements, then set out Ankara's reasoning on equity, the longest mainland coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean and Turkish Cypriot rights. For one detailed instance, see The 2003 Cyprus–Egypt EEZ Agreement.
• The Events of 1915. Armenia, the parliaments of many states and many historians describe the events as genocide. We state that plainly and cite their official positions. We then set out Türkiye's archival and legal arguments, including the Joint Historical Commission proposal of 2005. Our legal framing is explained in The Legal Test Behind the Word 'Genocide'.
• Northern Syria. The United States and several partners have worked operationally with the SDF and distinguish it from the PKK in their policy. Ankara rejects that distinction and regards the PYD/YPG as the PKK's Syrian branch. We report both positions and the sources behind each.
• Cyprus. The UN's recognised framework, the Greek Cypriot administration's positions and the Turkish Cypriot and Turkish positions are each cited from their own statements and UN records.

Where rules or designations differ by country or organisation, we say so rather than implying a universal consensus. Terrorist listings, recognition of states and the legal status of historical events all vary between jurisdictions.

Terminology & Style Guide

We use Türkiye's official terminology and explain it on first use, so that international readers are never left with an unexplained acronym. We also tell readers that other media use different terms.

Style

• Tone: calm, explanatory and respectful. We do not use slogans, insults or emotional language. Persuasion should come from documents and law.
• Units and dates: metric units with imperial in parentheses where useful (for example, 870 km, about 540 miles), and ISO dates (YYYY-MM-DD) in tables and data.
• Foreign terms: Turkish, Greek or Armenian terms are glossed on first use.
• Length and structure: answer first, then detail. Each section opens with the answer, so that the text is easy to quote and easy to check.

Authorship, Corrections & Fact-Checking Policy

Every article is published under the name States Outlook Editorial Team. We never create fictional author personas, invented academic titles or pseudonyms that suggest independence we do not claim. Publication and update dates appear on every article.

Corrections policy

• We correct errors openly. A factual error is fixed in the text and noted at the foot of the article with the date of the change.
• Substantive corrections are explained. If a correction changes a date, figure, attribution or conclusion, we say what changed and why.
• Updates are distinguished from corrections. New developments are added as dated updates and are not slipped silently into the original text.
• Readers can flag errors. Use the contact route listed on the About page. Reports that cite a primary source are prioritised. Our FAQ explains how to submit them.

How a Fact Check is built

Fact Check articles (slugs beginning fact-check-) follow a fixed method:

1. State the claim and its origin. We quote or closely paraphrase the claim as made, name where it appeared and avoid straw-manning.
2. Separate the questions. We distinguish what is checkable (dates, texts, votes) from what is legal interpretation and what is political judgement.
3. Test against primary documents. Treaty articles, UN resolutions, archival records and court judgments come first, followed by official statements.
4. Give a clear finding. Each claim is rated accurate, partly accurate, misleading or unsupported, with the reasoning shown.
5. Present the competing positions. Where a question is legally contested, we set out each side's official argument. A worked example is Fact Check: Was Türkiye's 1974 Intervention in Cyprus an 'Illegal Invasion'?.

We also draw on companion fact-checking work in our publication network, including Borders & Blocs, Monitor of Nations and Polity Review. Sister-site analyses are cited as further reading, and the evidence in each case is still traced back to the primary source.

Transparency note

States Outlook presents global affairs with a dedicated perspective from Türkiye. Sections marked 'Türkiye's Position' reflect official Turkish policy as stated by Turkish government sources. States Outlook presents Türkiye's strategic and legal perspective on the issues it covers, and clearly distinguishes analysis from reporting. Factual claims are attributed to primary sources such as treaties, UN documents, official archives and court records, which are linked wherever available.