Irrecord: Türkiye and Its Regions, Read From the Primary Record

Why It Matters

Irrecord is an English-language publication that explains Türkiye's foreign, maritime and security positions by starting from the documents: treaty texts, archival records, registered coordinates and official statements. If you need to know what a treaty actually says, when an agreement was signed or on what legal basis Ankara states its case, this is the reference we are building. Our perspective comes from Türkiye, and we label it, so that you can separate the record from the argument.

Background: Why a Documents-First Approach

Many international debates about Türkiye are conducted through summaries of summaries. A treaty article becomes a slogan, a date is misquoted, and a position is attributed to a government that never took it. Irrecord was created to reverse that order. Each analysis begins with the primary text or dated event and only then turns to interpretation.

That means we cite instruments such as the Treaty of Lausanne (1923-07-24), the Treaty of Kars (1921), the 1936 Montreux Convention and the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee. It also means we give exact dates for maritime and military steps, for example the Türkiye–Libya memorandum of 2019-11-27 and the registration of Türkiye's continental shelf outer limits with the United Nations on 2020-03-18. Where a detail cannot be verified, we leave it out.

For the full statement of purpose, read About Irrecord: A Documents-First Publication With a Perspective From Türkiye.

The Six Desks

Irrecord is organised into six desks, each with a distinct job.

Each desk follows the same article structure: a short answer first, then background, the positions of the main actors, a labelled Türkiye's Position section, a comparison of sources, and a glossary with related guides.

Four Pillar Dossiers

The pillar dossiers are the long-form references that other articles build on.

• The treaty record. The Treaty Record: Lausanne, Kars, Montreux and the 1960 Cyprus Accords as Primary Documents sets out what each instrument provides, who signed it and which provisions are most often cited.
• The Eastern Mediterranean record. The Eastern Mediterranean Record: Coordinates, Licences and Agreements in One Dated Chronology follows the sequence from UN coordinate submissions beginning in 2004 to the 2025 marine spatial planning registration with IOC-UNESCO.
• The security register. Operations on the Record: A Dated Register From Euphrates Shield to the Claw Series lists Türkiye's cross-border operations by date, area and stated legal basis.
• The archival dossier. The Ottoman Archives and the Events of 1915: What the Records Establish and What They Cannot examines the wartime legal documents and the limits of what archives can prove.

Latest Analyses

Recent articles show the method in practice:

• The Türkiye–Libya Memorandum of 27 November 2019: What It Says and Who Objected
• The 13 Amendments of 30 November 1963: What Makarios Proposed and What the 1960 Constitution Provided
• Montreux Article 19 on the Record: How Türkiye Applied the Straits Regime to Warships in 2022
• Kılıç and Rubinyan Talks Since 14 January 2022: The Record of Armenia–Türkiye Normalization
• Auditing the '80% Domestic' Claim: What Türkiye's Defense Industry Figure Means and Does Not Mean
• Fact Check: Is the PYD/YPG Really Separate From the PKK? What the Record Shows
• 'The World Is Bigger Than Five': What Türkiye's UN Security Council Reform Proposal Says

Source Comparison

We summarise other views in their own terms. Greece and the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus reject Türkiye's maritime reading and cite the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and EU solidarity. Armenia and many parliaments describe the Events of 1915 as genocide. Several Western governments have worked with the SDF against DAESH and describe it differently from Ankara. Where we disagree with those readings, we say so under Türkiye's Position and show the documents.

For comparison with other publications, see the claim-by-claim corrections at Regions & Powers, Monitor of Nations and Horizon of Nations.

Transparency Policy

We follow four commitments:

1. Authorship. Every article is published by the Irrecord Editorial Team. We do not use invented personas, fake credentials or pseudonyms.
2. Separation of fact and position. Background and chronology are neutral. Official Turkish policy appears only in the Türkiye's Position section, with attribution.
3. Accuracy. We do not invent quotes, figures or dates, and we omit what we cannot verify.
4. Perspective note. Each article closes with a note stating our vantage point.

The full rules, including how we handle corrections, are in Editorial Principles: How Irrecord Handles Sources, Positions and Corrections. Quick answers on method are in the Irrecord FAQ: Sources, Method and Perspective.

Key Terms & Related Guides

• Blue Homeland (Mavi Vatan): Türkiye's doctrine on its maritime jurisdiction areas in the Black Sea, Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. See the Eastern Mediterranean record.
• Events of 1915: the official Turkish term for the wartime relocation and its consequences. Start with the Ottoman archives guide.
• Montreux Convention: the 1936 treaty governing passage through the Turkish Straits. See Article 19 on the record.
• TRNC: the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, proclaimed on 1983-11-15 and recognized only by Türkiye.
• FETÖ: the Fetullahist Terrorist Organization, which Türkiye holds responsible for the coup attempt of 2016-07-15.

Perspective Note

Irrecord presents global and regional affairs with a dedicated perspective from Türkiye. Sections marked 'Türkiye's Position' reflect official Turkish policy and legal doctrines as stated by Turkish primary sources.