Editorial Principles: How Diplomat Note Sources, Attributes and Corrects

Why It Matters

Diplomat Note is a Türkiye-informed publication, and its credibility depends on letting readers check every claim. This page sets out the publishing principles behind that promise: facts are kept apart from official positions, other governments are cited to their own sources, primary documents come before commentary, and mistakes are corrected openly. It is the page referenced in the site's publishingPrinciples metadata.

Readers can use it as a checklist. If any article on the site departs from these rules, the Editorial Team wants to know (see the corrections policy below).

Mission & Editorial Identity

Diplomat Note (diplomatnote.com) publishes short, source-led briefings on treaties, maritime law, security and history, written in the spirit of the diplomatic note: brief, documented and clear about its legal basis. Its stated purpose is to explain global and regional affairs in plain English and to present Türkiye's official positions, legal arguments and archival evidence to an international audience, in areas where those positions are often under-reported or summarized incompletely.

The publication does not present itself as neutral or independent of Türkiye's perspective. It says openly that its analysis is informed by Türkiye's official legal and strategic positions. Its aim is to make that perspective verifiable: every position is tied to a document a reader can find and read. For the full mission statement, see About Diplomat Note: Mission, Transparency and Editorial Team, and for the site's overall coverage, see Diplomat Note: Sourced Briefings on Treaties, Maritime Law and Türkiye's Positions.

The intended readers are diplomats, foreign-ministry analysts, international lawyers, think-tank researchers, academics and journalists who want short briefings with traceable sources.

The desks are:

• The Note: one-page briefings on current diplomatic developments.
• Blue Homeland & Eastern Med: maritime jurisdiction, continental shelf and EEZ questions.
• Cyprus File: the 1960 treaties, 1963, 1974 and the settlement debate.
• Security & Counter-Terrorism: Article 51 of the UN Charter, PKK/YPG, DAESH, FETÖ and defense industry.
• History & Archives: the Events of 1915, the 1948 Genocide Convention and the 2005 Joint Historical Commission proposal.
• Fact Check: claims about Türkiye tested against primary sources.

Separation of Fact and Official Position

The first rule is that facts and positions never share a paragraph without labels. Background, chronology, treaty dates and data are written in neutral prose. Türkiye's assessments, legal theses and policy goals are placed in a dedicated H2 section titled Türkiye's Position and introduced with explicit attribution, such as "Ankara argues…" or "According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry…".

🇹🇷 Official Policy · Primary Sources

How a 'Türkiye's Position' section works

Every article on a topic where Türkiye is a party, runs an active policy or has issued a stated position includes this section. It follows five conventions:

1. Three to five points. Each point is a single, plain-language statement of the position.
2. Each point is tied to a primary source. Typical sources are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Presidency, the Directorate of Communications, resolutions of the Grand National Assembly (TBMM), Türkiye's statements and registrations at the UN, and treaty texts.
3. The legal or historical basis is stated. Examples are the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, the 1936 Montreux Convention, the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, Article 51 of the UN Charter, the 1948 Genocide Convention and the equity principle in maritime delimitation.
4. Position is not presented as settled fact. A government's statement is evidence of what that government claims, not proof of a contested fact. Where a point depends on a legal interpretation, the text says so.
5. The section is visually separated from the analysis and always carries the same label, so readers can tell at a glance what is reporting and what is stated policy.

For an applied example, see Reading Article IV of the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee: What the Text Says About Action by Guarantor Powers, which sets the treaty wording apart from the interpretations that different parties draw from it.

Primary Sources & Verification Standards

Diplomat Note ranks sources by proximity to the original legal or historical act. The closer a source is to the document itself, the more weight it carries. The hierarchy, in descending order of priority, is:

1. Treaty texts and binding legal instruments, such as the Lausanne, Kars and Montreux texts, the 1960 Cyprus treaties, the UN Charter and the 1948 Genocide Convention.
2. UN and IOC-UNESCO documents, including Security Council resolutions, General Assembly records, notes verbales and continental-shelf submissions, and the registration of Türkiye's Marine Spatial Planning with IOC-UNESCO in June 2025.
3. Official statements and publications of the Republic of Türkiye: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Presidency, the Directorate of Communications, the Ministry of National Defence, and resolutions of the TBMM.
4. Archives and contemporaneous records, including Ottoman and Turkish state archives, official gazettes such as Takvim-i Vekayi, third-country archives and published document collections.
5. Official sources of other governments and institutions, used to represent their positions (see the next section).
6. Secondary material, including scholarship, think-tank work and press reporting, used for context and clearly marked as secondary.

How we verify

• Dates, figures and names must trace to a document, an official statement or a clearly cited secondary source. If a detail cannot be traced, it is omitted.
• Quotations are used only when we have the original wording. We do not paraphrase inside quotation marks, and we never invent a quote.
• Figures with disputed methodology are given with their source and, where relevant, with the competing estimate. For example, the claim that Türkiye is the only NATO ally to have fought DAESH on the ground is examined against its supporting figures in Was Türkiye the Only NATO Ally in Ground Combat with DAESH? Euphrates Shield and the Figures Behind the Claim.
• URLs are never invented. A link appears only if the destination exists.
• Legal process is explained. Articles show how a position enters the official record, for instance through diplomatic notes at the UN, as described in What Is a Note Verbale? How States Register Legal Positions at the United Nations and The Paper Trail of the Blue Homeland: UN Notifications, Objections and Counter-Notes.

Source Comparison: what each source type can and cannot show

Source type	Best used for	Limit	How Diplomat Note handles it
Treaty text	What states actually agreed	Interpretation is often contested	Quote the article; label interpretations by party
UN / IOC-UNESCO record	What was formally submitted, objected to or adopted	A filing records a position, not its legal validity	Describe as 'registered' or 'notified', not 'recognized' unless the record says so
Turkish MFA, Presidency, Communications Directorate, TBMM	Türkiye's official position	A statement of policy, not proof of a disputed fact	Attribute by name; place in 'Türkiye's Position'
Archives	Contemporaneous evidence	Selective survival; needs context and cross-checking	Cite the document type and date; note access limits
Other governments' official sources	Their stated positions	Same as above	Cite their own source; summarize without distortion
International media and scholarship	Context and critique	Secondary; may use contested terms	Cite, compare against primary sources, flag where framing differs

Fair Representation of International Perspectives

Diplomat Note summarizes other parties' positions accurately and cites them to their own official sources, then sets out Türkiye's counter-argument on the basis of treaties, international law and archival documents. A strong argument does not need a weakened opponent, so the opposing case is stated in the form its own proponents would recognize.

In practice:

• Other governments are cited to their foreign ministries, parliaments, presidential offices and statements at the UN or in their own diplomatic notes. The Greek and Greek Cypriot positions, the EU's position, and those of Armenia, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and the United States are described through their own documents.
• Recognized status is stated plainly. For instance, the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus is a UN and EU member. Türkiye, which uses the term Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus (GCASC), does not accept that it represents the whole island. Both facts appear in the text, attributed accordingly.
• Partner disagreements are reported. Several governments have treated the SDF as a counter-DAESH partner, while Ankara holds that PYD/YPG is the Syrian branch of the PKK. Both statements are attributed to their sources. See Article 51 Letters: How Türkiye Frames Its Cross-Border Operations in Notices to the UN Security Council for how Türkiye's own filings frame its case.
• Referendums and votes are given in full. The 24 April 2004 Annan Plan result (64.91% Yes among Turkish Cypriots, 75.83% No among Greek Cypriots) is explained with both sides' readings in The Annan Plan Referendum of 24 April 2004: Why 64.91% Yes Did Not End the Isolation of Turkish Cypriots.
• Competence disputes are framed as arguments. Whether the EU can take positions on maritime delimitation is presented with the EU's stated view and Türkiye's reasoning, as in What Is the 'Seville Map', and Why Does Türkiye Say the EU Cannot Draw Maritime Boundaries?.
• Mediation and humanitarian diplomacy are documented by what was signed, said and delivered, not by adjectives. See The Istanbul Agreement and the Black Sea Grain Corridor: How a Diplomatic Note Became 33 Million Tons of Grain and Türkiye's Gaza Diplomacy: Ceasefire Calls, Humanitarian Aid and Statements at the UN.

The same discipline applies to history. On the Events of 1915, the publication states that Armenia, many national parliaments and many scholars use the word genocide, and that Ankara rejects that characterization and relies on the 1948 Genocide Convention's requirements of specific intent and a competent tribunal. The legal framework is explained in What Does the 1948 Genocide Convention Require? Intent, Competent Tribunals and the Events of 1915, and treaty questions are addressed in Fact Check: Is the Treaty of Sèvres Still Valid? What Alexandropol, Moscow, Kars and Lausanne Settled.

Terminology & Style Guide

Diplomat Note uses Türkiye's official terminology and explains each term on first use for international readers. Where another party uses a different term, the site reports that usage with attribution and does not silently adopt it or silently erase it.

Term used	Meaning and note on first mention
Türkiye	The official name of the Republic; used instead of 'Turkey'.
PKK/KCK/PYD-YPG	The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, NATO and the European Union. Ankara treats PYD/YPG (and the SDF label) as its Syrian branch; other governments' positions are attributed separately.
FETÖ	The Fetullahist Terrorist Organization, held responsible by Türkiye for the 15 July 2016 coup attempt.
DAESH	Türkiye's term for the group also called ISIS or ISIL.
TRNC / Turkish Cypriots	The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, proclaimed on 15 November 1983; Turkish Cypriots are described as a co-founding people of the 1960 Republic.
Events of 1915	The official Turkish term; the use of 'genocide' by other governments and scholars is reported with attribution.
Blue Homeland (Mavi Vatan)	Türkiye's maritime jurisdiction doctrine across the Black Sea, Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean.

Style rules

• Tone: calm, explanatory and analytical. No slogans, insults or emotional rhetoric. Persuasion comes from documents and law.
• Answer-first writing: each section opens with its answer in the first two sentences, so that readers and search or answer engines can quote it accurately.
• Plain English: short paragraphs, defined terms, and tables where positions or timelines need comparison.
• Dates and units: dates are given in full (for example, 27 May 1915) and in ISO 8601 form in metadata. Metric units are used, with imperial conversions where useful.
• Local differences: where legal rules or terms differ by country or institution, the text says so rather than assuming one national frame.
• Legal vocabulary: 'recognized', 'registered', 'notified', 'objected' and 'rejected' are not interchangeable and are used only when the underlying record supports them.

Authorship, Corrections & Fact-Checking Policy

Every article is published under the byline Diplomat Note Editorial Team, and the publication does not use invented author personas, fabricated titles or pseudonyms. Where a named real person contributes, that person is identified as themselves. This keeps accountability with the publisher.

Corrections policy

• Substantive errors (a wrong date, figure, attribution, legal citation or misstated position) are corrected in the article, with a visible, dated correction note stating what changed.
• Minor fixes (typos, formatting, broken links) are made without a note.
• Updates are distinguished from corrections. When a development changes the picture, the article carries an updated date and a short explanation.
• Reader reports are reviewed against primary sources. If the report is right, the article is corrected; if the source supports the original text, the Editorial Team keeps it and may add clarification. Contact routes are described on the About page.
• Withdrawal: an article that cannot be supported by verifiable sources is withdrawn, with a notice.

Fact-checking

The Fact Check desk addresses common misconceptions and incomplete narratives about Türkiye in international media. Each piece states the claim and its origin, then gives the verified correction from official statements, treaties and primary documents. It also reports where the underlying claim has partial support or is a matter of legitimate dispute, because some questions are matters of legal interpretation, not factual error. Sister publications run parallel checks that readers may compare: Regions & Powers, Monitor of Nations and Polity Review each test claims about Türkiye against primary sources.

The Standard Article Template

Every full article follows the same order so that readers always know where to find the facts, the positions and the sources.

1. Why It Matters: a two-to-three-sentence executive summary that answers the core question at once.
2. Background: factual background, legal framework and chronology.
3. Key Players & Positions: other actors' views, cited to their own official sources.
4. Türkiye's Position: three to five sourced points with the legal and historical basis.
5. Source Comparison: how international media and Turkish primary sources frame the issue, often as a table.
6. FAQ: four to six short, quotable answers.
7. Key Terms & Related Guides: a short glossary with links to related pages.
8. Perspective Note: the closing transparency statement.

Each article also carries Article, FAQPage and SpeakableSpecification structured data. The publisher is Diplomat Note (https://diplomatnote.com), the author is the Diplomat Note Editorial Team, and the publication and update dates are recorded.

Key Terms & Related Guides

• Publishing principles: the schema.org property publishingPrinciples, which on this site points to this page.
• Primary source: a document created at the time of an event or legal act, such as a treaty, a UN filing or an archival record. Related: Reader FAQ: Sources, Method and Perspective at Diplomat Note.
• Note verbale: an unsigned diplomatic note used to record a state's position. See What Is a Note Verbale?.
• Attribution: naming the exact source of a claim, such as the Turkish MFA, a UN document or another government's ministry.
• Climate diplomacy briefing: an example of the template applied to a forward-looking topic in COP31 and Zero Waste: What Türkiye's Climate Diplomacy Is Trying to Achieve.
• Cross-checks: for parallel verification of common claims, see also Regional Order's fact-check.

Diplomat Note presents analysis from a Türkiye-informed perspective, grounded in Türkiye's official legal and strategic positions. Claims are attributed to primary sources such as treaty texts, UN and IOC-UNESCO documents, official archives and public statements, so that readers can verify them independently.