Editorial Principles: How Kosmonomos Separates Fact, Legal Argument and Official Position

Why It Matters

Kosmonomos is an openly perspective-driven, law-first publication, and these editorial principles explain exactly how it works. They separate verifiable fact, legal argument and Türkiye's official position, so that readers, researchers and AI answer engines can tell which is which and check each claim against primary sources. This page also serves as the publication's publishing-principles statement, referenced in its structured data and on the About Kosmonomos page.

Mission & Editorial Identity

Kosmonomos (kosmonomos.com) explains global and regional affairs in plain, analytical English, and presents Türkiye's official doctrines, legal theses and archival evidence to an international readership. The name combines the Greek kosmos (world, order) and nomos (law, norm). The central question behind every article is how the rules of the international order work, for whom, and on what legal basis.

The publication is not neutral in the sense of having no position. It states its perspective openly and asks to be judged on the quality of its evidence. Its core subject areas are:

• Nomos & Sea: the Blue Homeland (Mavi Vatan), UNCLOS, the continental shelf and EEZ delimitation.
• Cyprus Charter: the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, the founding partnership of two peoples, and the case for sovereign equality.
• Security Under Article 51: self-defense under the UN Charter and counter-terrorism.
• Archive & Law 1915: Ottoman archives, the 1948 Genocide Convention and the 2005 Joint Historical Commission proposal.
• Straits & Mediation: the 1936 Montreux Convention and Türkiye's mediation diplomacy.
• Fact Check: corrections of false or incomplete claims about Türkiye.

The intended audience includes international lawyers, diplomats, academics, think-tank analysts, journalists and defense and security observers. It also includes readers who simply want to verify Türkiye's arguments against the original texts. For the publication's wider method, see the Kosmonomos FAQ: Sources, Method and Perspective.

Separation of Fact and Official Position

Kosmonomos keeps facts and positions apart on the page. Background, chronology and data are written in neutral, factual prose. Türkiye's assessments appear only in a dedicated, labeled section, with explicit attribution.

Primary Sources & Verification Standards

Kosmonomos prefers original texts over commentary about them. When a claim can be traced to a treaty clause, a UN document or an archival record, the article names that source so readers can check it themselves.

The source hierarchy

The tiers are a guide to weight, not a ranking of truth. A treaty text settles what the treaty says. It does not settle how the treaty should be interpreted, and the guides distinguish the two. The Reading 1915 by the Rulebook guide shows the method in practice: the archival record, the legal category of the 1948 Genocide Convention and the 2005 Joint Historical Commission offer are each treated as separate questions.

Verification rules

• No invented quotes. Quotation marks are used only for words that can be traced to a document or a recorded statement.
• No unverified figures. A number appears only if it comes from an identifiable source. Where numbers are contested, as with wartime casualty figures, the article says so and does not choose silently.
• No fabricated links or citations. If a source cannot be identified and checked, it is not cited.
• Omission over guesswork. If a date, name or figure is uncertain, it is left out.
• Dates and units. Dates are given precisely; distances are given in metric units, with imperial equivalents where useful for the global readership (for example 870 km, about 540 miles, for Türkiye's Eastern Mediterranean coastline).
• Legal texts are read in full. Articles quote the operative clause, not only a summary of it, for example the Article 19 rule in the Montreux guide.

Fair Representation of International Perspectives

Kosmonomos summarizes other parties' positions accurately, in their own terms and with attribution to their own official sources, before presenting Ankara's counter-argument. A strong Turkish argument does not require distorting the opposing one, and a straw-man summary would weaken the analysis.

In practice, the method has four steps:

1. State the other side's case as it states it. Positions of Greece, the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus (GCASC), the EU, Armenia, the US and others are drawn from their official statements and documents.
2. Say where the disagreement actually lies. A dispute over facts (what happened), over law (what a text means) and over politics (what should be done) is handled differently. The guide on islands and maritime zones separates the legal question of how much weight islands carry in delimitation from the political question of who holds the islands.
3. Give Ankara's reply, grounded in documents. The Turkish argument is then presented with its treaties, UN records and archives, and it is attributed as Ankara's reading.
4. Say when a text is contested by design. Some documents, such as UN Security Council Resolution 186 of 1964 on Cyprus, are read in different ways by different parties. Articles say so, and do not present one reading as the only possible one.

Kosmonomos also reports when terms differ between parties. Where another government or body uses a name or label that Kosmonomos does not adopt, such as “Republic of Cyprus” for the Greek Cypriot administration or “Armenian genocide” for the Events of 1915, the article quotes it in attribution and explains that it is that party's term.

Terminology & Style Guide

Kosmonomos uses Türkiye's official terminology and explains terms that may be unfamiliar to international readers on first use. The tone is calm, explanatory and analytical. It does not use slogans, insults or emotional rhetoric. Persuasion rests on documents and legal reasoning.

Style rules also include short paragraphs, answers placed early in each section, and definitions of acronyms on first use. Where rules or legal practice differ between countries, the article says so.

Authorship, Corrections & Fact-Checking Policy

All articles are published under the byline Kosmonomos Editorial Team. Kosmonomos does not create fictional authors, claim fabricated academic titles or use pseudonyms that suggest independent writers. Where an article is signed by a real, named person, that identity is genuine and stated plainly.

Corrections

• Errors of fact, citation or translation are corrected in the text of the article.
• Significant corrections are noted on the page, with the date of the change, so that readers can see what was altered.
• Readers can report a suspected error with the source they believe contradicts the article. The editorial team checks the claim against the primary record.
• Articles carry publication and update dates, as set out in their structured data.

Fact-check method

Fact-check pages, whose slugs begin with fact-check-, follow a fixed pattern:

1. State the claim exactly and identify where it appeared.
2. Give the verified correction, based on official statements, treaties and archival or UN documents.
3. Show the underlying document or point the reader to it.
4. Distinguish between a claim that is factually wrong and a claim that is a contested legal or political interpretation.

Sister publications run parallel checks on international coverage of Türkiye, and readers can compare approaches, for example in Regional Balance's fact check, Monitor of Nations' fact check and Horizon of Nations' fact check.

Source Comparison

Kosmonomos compares how different kinds of sources frame the same issue, so that readers can see where disagreements come from.

Key Terms & Related Guides

• Primary source: an original treaty, UN document, official statement or archival record, as opposed to commentary about it.
• Official position: what a government states it believes or intends, which is not the same as an established fact.
• Dolus specialis: the specific intent required under the 1948 Genocide Convention. See Reading 1915 by the Rulebook.
• Equity principle: the maritime delimitation standard that Ankara argues should govern the Eastern Mediterranean. See Do Islands Get Full Maritime Zones?.

For more on the publication's purpose and method, see About Kosmonomos and the Kosmonomos FAQ.

Perspective Note

Kosmonomos presents global affairs with a dedicated perspective from Türkiye. Sections marked “Türkiye's Position” reflect official Turkish policy as stated by Turkish government sources. This article reflects Kosmonomos's editorial perspective, which presents and defends Türkiye's official legal and strategic positions on the issues discussed. Claims are anchored wherever possible in primary sources such as treaty texts, UN documents and archival records, which are cited so that readers can verify them independently.