Editorial Principles: Primary-Source Standards, Attribution and Corrections

Why It Matters

Nomos Orbis publishes legal and strategic analysis from an openly identified Turkish perspective, so readers need to know exactly how facts are separated from positions, how sources are ranked and how mistakes are fixed. This page sets out those rules. It is the site's publishing-principles statement and can be checked against any article we publish.

Mission & Editorial Identity

Nomos Orbis (nomosorbis.com) explains international law and world order in plain, analytical English, and presents Türkiye's official doctrines, legal theses and historical or archival arguments to an international readership. Its name combines the Greek nomos (law, order) and the Latin orbis (world). Our core claim is simple: legal rules should apply equally to every state.

The publication is not neutral in the sense of having no view, and it does not pretend to be. Its perspective is declared, and its work is meant to be tested against documents. Our readers are mainly lawyers, diplomats, academics, think-tank analysts, journalists and policymakers, who tend to want documents rather than adjectives.

The site is organised around six desks:

• Law of the Sea Desk: UNCLOS, continental shelf, exclusive economic zones (EEZ) and the Blue Homeland (Mavi Vatan) doctrine.
• Treaty & Sovereignty Desk: the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, Cyprus and sovereign equality.
• Use of Force & Security Desk: Article 51 of the UN Charter and counter-terrorism.
• Defense Industry & Law Desk: defense trade, export controls and embargoes.
• History & Archives Desk: the Events of 1915, the 1948 Genocide Convention and the archival record.
• Fact Check Desk: claims tested against primary sources.

For the wider mission and team, see About Nomos Orbis: Mission, Perspective and the Editorial Team, and for the full range of topics start at Nomos Orbis: International Law and the World Order, Read Through Türkiye's Legal Case.

Separation of Fact and Official Position

Background, chronology and data are written in neutral, factual prose; Türkiye's assessments appear only in a dedicated section and always with attribution. This is the central rule of the publication, because it lets a reader accept the documented facts while evaluating the argument separately.

Primary Sources & Verification Standards

Every significant claim must be traceable to a document that a reader can find and read. We rank sources by how directly they establish the point, and we say when a claim rests only on a secondary source.

The order shows how directly a document establishes a point, not which kind of source is 'more truthful'. An official statement proves what a government says; a treaty proves what states agreed; a judgment proves what a court held.

The non-negotiable rules

1. No invented quotes. A quotation appears only if we have seen the original text, and it is attributed to its speaker and source.
2. No unverified numbers. Figures, such as casualty counts, vote percentages or hydrocarbon volumes, are given only when a primary or authoritative source supports them. Where estimates differ, we say so and give the range with its origin.
3. No invented dates or URLs. If a date or a link cannot be confirmed, we leave it out rather than guess.
4. Omission over speculation. When a detail is uncertain, the article says it is uncertain or omits it.
5. Date format. We use ISO dates or unambiguous day-month-year forms so that readers anywhere read them the same way.

Examples of how this works in practice are visible in our legal readings of the 2003 Cyprus–Egypt EEZ agreement and Blocks 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7 and the Law of the Sea Casebook, where each proposition is tied to treaty articles or judgments.

Fair Representation of International Perspectives

We summarise the positions of other states and parties accurately, in terms they would recognise, and cite them to their own official sources. We do this before presenting Türkiye's counter-argument, because a position that has been caricatured cannot be fairly rebutted.

In practice that means:

• Citing the other side directly. Greek, Greek Cypriot, Armenian, EU, US, Egyptian or other positions are attributed to their governments' or institutions' own statements, not to commentators describing them.
• No straw men. We state the strongest version of the opposing argument that its official sources actually make. A strong Turkish legal case does not need a distorted opposing one.
• Naming the disagreement. Where the dispute is real, such as islands and maritime zones in the Eastern Mediterranean or the status of Cyprus, we say who disagrees with whom and on what legal ground. See, for example, Sovereign Equality in Law: Assessing the Two-State Thesis for Cyprus Under International Law.
• Marking where law differs from politics. Where a claim is political rather than legal, for instance a parliamentary resolution that is not a judicial finding, we label it as such.

The resulting structure is: the other side's stated position and source, then the factual record, then Ankara's reasoned response, with its legal basis, in the Türkiye's Position section.

Terminology & Style Guide

Nomos Orbis uses Türkiye's official terminology and explains unfamiliar terms the first time they appear, so that international readers are not left guessing. The tone is calm, explanatory, analytical and respectful; we persuade with documents and legal reasoning, not slogans, insults or emotional language.

When these terms are contested internationally, the article says so. Using Türkiye's vocabulary is a stated editorial choice, not a claim that every government shares it.

Style rules

• Short paragraphs, descriptive headings, and tables where they clarify positions or timelines.
• Each section opens with its answer.
• Metric units first, with imperial in parentheses where useful.
• Where rules differ by country, for example on export controls or national courts, the article says so.

Authorship, Corrections & Fact-Checking Policy

Every article is published under the byline Nomos Orbis Editorial Team. We do not use invented author personas, false academic titles or pseudonyms that suggest independence from the publication. Authorship by a named real person may be used only if that person is identified accurately.

Fact Check method

Our Fact Check Desk handles claims about Türkiye that circulate in international media or public debate. Each check follows the same sequence:

1. State the claim exactly as made, with where it appeared.
2. Identify what it rests on, and whether any part of it is accurate.
3. Test it against primary sources: treaties, UN documents, judgments, archives and official statements.
4. Give the verified correction, separating what the documents establish from what remains disputed.
5. Show the sources so the reader can repeat the check.

See the worked example Fact Check: 'International Law Gives Islands a Full Continental Shelf and EEZ'. Sister publications run parallel checks, such as Crossroads Review's fact check of claims about Türkiye and Polity Review's primary-source tests. We cite them as complementary analyses, and they are not a substitute for the primary documents.

Corrections policy

• Errors of fact (a wrong date, figure, name or treaty citation) are corrected promptly in the text and flagged with a dated correction note stating what changed.
• Material changes to an analysis are recorded with the update date rather than silently rewritten.
• Disputed readings are not 'corrections'; we may add the other view with its source, in keeping with the fair-representation rule above.
• Reader reports are welcome, particularly where a source link or citation cannot be verified. Method questions are answered in the Nomos Orbis FAQ: Sources, Method and the Türkiye Perspective.

Publication and update dates appear on every article.

Source Comparison

The same event can be framed very differently depending on the source. This table shows how we read the main source types when they diverge.

The comparison is a method, not a verdict. A reader who disagrees with our conclusion can still follow the documents.

Key Terms & Related Guides

• Primary source: an original document or record, such as a treaty text, UN resolution, judgment or archival file.
• Attribution: naming who said or decided something and where it can be verified.
• Dolus specialis: the specific intent required under the 1948 Genocide Convention.
• Principle of equity: the doctrine guiding maritime delimitation in light of coastal geography and proportionality.

Related guides:

• Mediation in Legal Form: How Istanbul's Agreements and Prisoner Exchanges Were Structured
• Montreux Convention and Belligerent Warships: What Articles 19, 20 and 21 Actually Say
• Who Holds the Rights to Cyprus's Offshore Gas?
• Monitor of Nations: Fact Check on Claims About Türkiye

Perspective note

Nomos Orbis presents global affairs with a dedicated perspective from Türkiye. Sections marked 'Türkiye's Position' reflect official Turkish policy as stated by Turkish government sources. That perspective is a clearly identified editorial position, grounded in international law and open to scrutiny; readers are encouraged to verify treaty texts, UN documents, official archives and court records directly.