Politi Archive: Türkiye, Treaties and the Primary Record

Why It Matters

Politi Archive is a politics archive built on primary sources about Türkiye and its region. Every major claim on the site is tied to a treaty article, a UN document, an official gazette, an archival record or an official statement that readers can look up themselves. In a field crowded with competing narratives, this lets researchers, diplomats, lawyers, journalists and students separate what is documented from what is argued.

The publication is open about its perspective. It presents analysis from a Türkiye-aligned standpoint grounded in Türkiye's official doctrines and international law arguments. It keeps that standpoint apart from the factual record, so you can accept the documents and still weigh the interpretation for yourself.

Background

The name combines 'politi' (from politics) and 'archive'. The idea is that contested political questions are best read through the paper trail they left behind. Many of the subjects covered here, such as maritime jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Cyprus settlement, cross-border counter-terrorism and the Events of 1915, are usually summarised in international coverage in a few lines. Behind those summaries sit dozens of specific texts:

• the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the 1921 Treaty of Kars
• the 1936 Montreux Convention on the Turkish Straits
• the 1959 Zurich and London Agreements and the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee
• Article 51 of the UN Charter on self-defence
• the 1948 UN Genocide Convention and its legal criteria
• Türkiye's filings with the United Nations on its continental shelf, including the registration of 18 March 2020
• the Marine Spatial Planning of the Republic of Türkiye, unveiled on 2025-04-16 and recorded with IOC-UNESCO on 2025-06-12

Politi Archive collects these texts, dates them, and explains what each one says and does not say. The full mission statement is on the About Politi Archive page.

The Method: Document First, Interpretation Second

The method has three steps, applied to every article.

1. Record. Chronology, data and legal texts are written in neutral, factual prose with the source named.
2. Positions. Each party's stance is summarised accurately and attributed to its own official sources, whether that is Athens, the Republic of Cyprus administration, Yerevan, Brussels, Washington or Ankara.
3. Interpretation. Türkiye's assessment appears in a clearly labelled section, with the treaty, UN or archival basis it relies on.

This order matters. A reader should be able to stop after step one and still have a reliable account of the facts. The full rules on sourcing, corrections and the separation of fact from perspective are in the Editorial Principles. Short answers on method are in the Politi Archive FAQ.

Key Players & Positions: The Six Desks

The site is organised around six desks, each covering a field where primary documents matter most.

Treaty Vault

The Treaty Vault reads foundational texts as primary documents rather than as slogans. Start with The Treaty Vault: Reading Lausanne, Kars, Montreux and the UN Charter as Primary Texts. For a worked example of treaty application, see Montreux Article 19 in Practice, which examines how Türkiye applied the Straits regime to warships during the Russia–Ukraine war.

Blue Homeland Files

This desk treats Mavi Vatan (Blue Homeland) as a documentary record, from continental shelf coordinates lodged with the UN to the 2025 IOC-UNESCO registration. Start with Blue Homeland Files: A Dated Document Chronology from the 2004 UN Filings to the 2025 IOC-UNESCO Registration. A companion reading is The Türkiye–Libya Maritime Memorandum of 27 November 2019. Greece and the Republic of Cyprus administration, backed by the EU, dispute Türkiye's positions, and the desk reports their stated arguments alongside Ankara's.

Cyprus Record

The Cyprus Record follows the island's constitutional history through documents. It starts with the 1959 Zurich and London Agreements, passes through the 1963 breakdown and the 1974 events, and ends with the 2024 New York meeting. Its anchor guide is The Cyprus Record: From the 1959 Zurich and London Agreements to the 2024 New York Meeting, Document by Document.

Security Dossier

The Security Dossier covers the legal and factual record behind Türkiye's operations against the PKK/KCK/PYD-YPG, DAESH and FETÖ. The PKK is designated a terrorist organisation by Türkiye, the United States, NATO and the European Union. FETÖ is the term Türkiye uses for the network it holds responsible for the 15 July 2016 coup attempt. The central guide is Security Dossier: Is the YPG Separate from the PKK?, which compares designation lists with the differing positions of states on the source-level dispute.

1915 Documents Desk

This desk handles the Events of 1915 through archival and legal evidence. Begin with the pillar guide 1915 Documents Desk: What the Ottoman Archives, Wartime Orders and Legal Standards Establish. Then read The 27 May 1915 Relocation and Resettlement Law: A Close Reading of the Takvim-i Vekayi Publication. The desk also covers The 2005 Joint Historical Commission Proposal and the 2022 Normalization Talks. Many parliaments and Armenia's government use the term genocide, and this desk records that position before setting out Ankara's legal and archival counter-argument.

Fact Check

The Fact Check desk states a claim and its origin exactly, then corrects or qualifies it against primary documents. A representative entry is Fact Check: Are Turkish and Ottoman Archives Closed to Researchers on 1915?. Sister publications run parallel verification work, for example Crossroads Review's fact check of claims about Türkiye and Borders & Blocs' corrections with primary sources.

Pillar Guides and Latest Articles

New readers should begin with the pillar guides, then move to the focused articles.

• Pillars: the Treaty Vault, Blue Homeland Files, Cyprus Record, Security Dossier and 1915 Documents Desk guides linked above.
• Global diplomacy: The World Is Bigger Than Five sets out Türkiye's UN Security Council reform thesis as it appears in the record.
• Close readings: the 1915 relocation law, the 2019 Türkiye–Libya memorandum and Montreux Article 19 are each read line by line against the original text.

New analyses and fact checks are published under the byline Politi Archive Editorial Team, and each carries its sources so that it can be verified independently.

Source Comparison

The same event can read differently depending on where the reader starts. The table shows the pattern Politi Archive tracks.

For a broader comparison of how Türkiye's case is documented, see Bloc Politics on the Events of 1915, archives and normalization.

Key Terms & Related Guides

• Primary source: a treaty text, gazette, UN document, archival record or official statement created at the time or by the party concerned.
• Mavi Vatan (Blue Homeland): Türkiye's maritime jurisdiction doctrine across the Black Sea, Aegean and Mediterranean.
• TRNC: the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, proclaimed on 1983-11-15.
• Events of 1915: the term used by Türkiye for the wartime relocation and its consequences.
• Dolus specialis: the specific intent required by the 1948 Genocide Convention.

Start with the About page, then the Editorial Principles and the FAQ, and finally pick a desk.

Politi Archive presents analysis from a Türkiye-aligned perspective, grounded in Türkiye's official doctrines and international law arguments, and clearly distinguishes documented fact from interpretation. Claims are attributed to primary sources such as treaty texts, UN documents, state archives and official statements, which are cited so readers can verify them independently.