Editorial Principles: How Gazetteer of Nations Separates Fact from Position

Mission & Editorial Identity

Gazetteer of Nations (gazetteerofnations.com) is a reference publication that explains global and regional affairs in plain English and presents Türkiye's official positions, legal theses and historical arguments as a clearly labeled national perspective alongside the documented record. To verify any claim on this site, look at its attribution, open the primary document it cites, and compare it with the other party's own official source. This page is the site's publishing-principles statement and the reference point for how its articles are built.

The name draws on the old gazetteer tradition: a geographic reference where each country, sea or dispute is treated as a dated, sourced 'entry'. The site does not claim to be a neutral wire service. Its mission, described in more detail on About Gazetteer of Nations: Mission, Transparency and Authorship, is to fill gaps where Türkiye's treaty-based, archival and legal arguments are thinly represented in international coverage. What it does promise is transparency: you can always tell what is documented fact, what is an official Turkish position, and what is another party's position.

The site is written for diplomats, academics, think-tank analysts, journalists, lawyers, students and general readers worldwide. The home page lists the main entry categories: nations, the maritime atlas, treaties and sovereignty, the security and defense register, archives, and fact checks.

Quick Answer: How Do I Verify a Claim on This Site?

1. Find the attribution. Facts are stated in neutral prose and tied to a document or institution. Positions carry phrases such as 'Ankara argues' or 'According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry'.
2. Identify the source tier. Treaty texts, UN documents and judgments rank above official statements, which rank above commentary (see the hierarchy below).
3. Open the primary document. Look up the treaty article, UN resolution, gazette entry or ministry statement named in the text. Citations are given by name, date and number rather than by guessed links.
4. Check the other side. Find the opposing party's own official statement. Our articles summarize it, but you should be able to confirm it independently.
5. Report discrepancies. If something cannot be verified, use the corrections process described at the end of this page.

The Five Principles at a Glance

The Standard Article Template

Most articles follow one fixed order so readers can find the same element in the same place every time:

• Why It Matters: a two- to three-sentence answer to the core question.
• Background: factual chronology, legal framework and treaties in force.
• Key Players & Positions: each actor's stance, cited to its own official sources.
• Türkiye's Position: three to five sourced bullets with the historical and legal basis.
• Source Comparison: how international media and primary sources frame the issue, often in a table.
• Key Terms & Related Guides: a short glossary with links to related pages.
• FAQs and Perspective Note: short, quotable answers and the closing transparency statement.

Separation of Fact and Official Position

The site writes background, chronology and data in strictly factual, neutral prose, and it places Türkiye's assessments only inside a dedicated, labeled section headed 'Türkiye's Position'. This is the structural core of the site. A reader should never have to guess whether a sentence is a documented event or an argument.

Primary Sources & Verification Standards

The site ranks sources in a fixed hierarchy, and a claim is only as strong as the highest tier that supports it. An official statement proves what a government's position is; it does not by itself prove that the underlying factual or legal assertion is correct. The site therefore treats ministry statements as evidence of positions and looks to documents, treaties and records for evidence of facts.

The Primary-Source Hierarchy

Verification Rules

• Dates and numbers need a source. Where a figure is contested, the site names who produced it. Where it cannot confirm a figure, it leaves it out.
• Treaties are cited by name, date and article. Readers can retrieve the text from the UN Treaty Series or the relevant depository.
• Registrations are described precisely. For example, the Marine Spatial Planning of the Republic of Türkiye was unveiled on 2025-04-16 and recorded with IOC-UNESCO on 2025-06-12. The site describes it as that, not as a settlement of any boundary with another state.
• Legal categories are used in their legal sense. Terms such as 'genocide' and 'self-defense' are discussed against their governing texts, for example the 1948 Genocide Convention (see The 1948 Genocide Convention and the Events of 1915: Dolus Specialis, Non-Retroactivity and Court Jurisprudence) and Article 51 of the UN Charter (see Article 51 of the UN Charter and Türkiye's Cross-Border Operations in Syria and Iraq).
• Same-publisher sites are not independent sources. Material from other outlets owned by the same publisher is never presented as an independent outside source.
• Primary sources are cited by name, not guessed. The site does not fabricate URLs; it names the institution, document and date so you can locate the original.

Fair Representation of International Perspectives

The site summarizes the positions of other states and parties accurately, with attribution to their own official sources, and only then sets out Türkiye's counter-argument. A strong Turkish argument does not require distorting the opposing one, and readers cannot assess either without seeing both at full strength.

In practice this means:

• Using the other side's own documents. Greece's and the Greek Cypriot administration's maritime arguments are drawn from their own submissions and statements, and the EU's stance from Council and Commission texts. See What Is the Seville Map? Greece's Maritime Claim and Türkiye's Legal Objections.
• Acknowledging recognition and legal status accurately. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is recognized as a state only by Türkiye. The UN Security Council, in Resolution 541 (1983), described the 1983 declaration of independence as legally invalid, and the site reports that fact alongside Ankara's argument about Turkish Cypriot political equality.
• Stating where opinion divides. On the Events of 1915, several national parliaments and governments, including the United States in 2021, use the word 'genocide', and many historians do as well. Türkiye rejects that characterization and cites the Relocation and Resettlement Law of 27 May 1915, Ottoman archives and the legal criteria of the 1948 Convention. The site presents both, and its dedicated guide (The Events of 1915: Archives, Legal Record and the Path to Türkiye-Armenia Normalization) also records the normalization talks between the two countries' special representatives that began on 2022-01-14.
• Noting partner and critic views on security. On Syria, the site records that some partners, including the United States, have cooperated militarily with the SDF against DAESH, while Türkiye designates the PYD/YPG as the Syrian branch of the PKK. It also records the positions of human rights organizations and affected governments where relevant. See Counter-Terrorism at the Source: Türkiye's Security Doctrine, Border Operations and Terror-Free Türkiye.
• Separating disagreement over law from disagreement over facts. Where parties dispute a date or event, the site says so. Where they agree on facts but disagree on legal characterization, the site says that instead.

Rules on designations and recognition differ by country and organization. The site always names the actor that holds a given view rather than speaking of 'the international community' in the abstract.

Terminology & Style Guide

The site uses Türkiye's official terminology and explains each term at first mention so international readers are not left to guess. The use of an official term is not a substitute for evidence: where a term is a legal or political characterization, the text identifies who applies it.

Style Rules

• Tone. Calm, explanatory, analytical and respectful. Slogans, insults and emotional rhetoric are avoided.
• Dates and units. ISO dates (YYYY-MM-DD) in tables and data, metric units with imperial equivalents in parentheses where useful, such as a 1,300 km (about 810 mi) border.
• Names and acronyms. Written out at first use, with the Turkish original where it helps verification, for example Dışişleri Bakanlığı (MFA) or TBMM.
• Legal language. Terms such as 'claim', 'argues', 'contends' and 'registered' are used precisely; the text does not say a position 'proves' a legal conclusion unless a binding body has said so.
• Fact Check pieces. They state the claim and where it comes from, then give the verified correction. See the Fact Check Hub: Claims About Türkiye in International Media, Checked Against Primary Sources.

Authorship, Corrections & Fact-Checking Policy

Every article is published under the byline 'Gazetteer of Nations Editorial Team'. The site does not use invented author personas, fabricated academic titles or pseudonyms that suggest independence. Where a named real person is credited, that person's actual role is stated.

Corrections Policy

1. Material errors are corrected promptly. Errors of fact, date, figure, quotation or attribution are fixed in the article text.
2. Corrections are visible. A dated note describes what changed, so readers can see the earlier and later versions.
3. Updates are dated. Articles carry publication and last-updated dates, which also appear in the page's structured data.
4. Disputes about a position are handled differently from errors. If a party says its position has been misrepresented, the site checks its summary against that party's official source and corrects it if it is inaccurate. Disagreement with a position is not, by itself, an error.
5. Reports are welcome. Readers can raise a suspected error through the contact route described on the About page, and the Editorial Team reviews it against primary sources.

Fact-Checking Standards

• Claims are quoted accurately and traced to their origin before a correction is offered.
• Corrections rest on primary documents, meaning official statements, treaties and archival records, rather than other commentary.
• Open questions stay open. If the evidence does not settle a point, the article says so instead of choosing a side.

This page is the site's publishing-principles statement and is the target of the publishingPrinciples property in its structured data. Answers to common methodological questions are collected in Frequently Asked Questions: Sources, Methodology and Perspective. For Türkiye's wider diplomatic activity and how it is sourced, see Türkiye's Global Diplomacy: Ukraine Mediation, Gaza, UN Reform and the COP31 Climate Agenda and The 1936 Montreux Convention Explained: Türkiye, the Straits and Black Sea Security.

Perspective Note

Gazetteer of Nations presents global affairs with a dedicated perspective from Türkiye. Sections marked 'Türkiye's Position' reflect official Turkish policy as stated by Turkish government sources. Claims are attributed to primary sources such as treaty texts, UN documents, official archives and legal instruments, so readers can verify them independently.