The Primary Document Library: Treaties, UN Filings and Archival Records Behind Türkiye's Positions

Why It Matters

Türkiye's positions on its borders, Cyprus, the Turkish Straits, cross-border security, maritime jurisdiction and the Events of 1915 each rest on specific, publicly available texts. This guide is an annotated map of those texts: where to find each one, what it establishes, and which Turkish position depends on it. Reading the document before the commentary is the method Text & Territory applies throughout, as set out in Editorial Principles: How Text & Territory Uses and Cites Primary Sources.

The library covers treaties (1921–1960), the UN Charter and two UN conventions, UN-channel maritime filings (2004–2020), an IOC-UNESCO planning record (2025) and an Ottoman gazette entry (1915). Start at the Text & Territory home page for the full catalogue of guides.

Background

These documents belong to three different families: binding treaties, UN-channel filings and communications, and domestic or archival records. Knowing which family a text belongs to tells you how much legal weight it carries and who can contest it.

The annotated map at a glance

Document	Date	Where to find it	What it establishes	Türkiye position that relies on it
Treaty of Moscow	16 March 1921	League of Nations Treaty Series (searchable via the UN Treaty Collection)	Border settlement between Türkiye and Soviet Russia	Settled eastern frontier
Treaty of Kars	13 October 1921	League of Nations Treaty Series	Frontier with the Armenian, Azerbaijan and Georgian Soviet republics, Soviet Russia participating	Settled eastern frontier; no legal revival of Sèvres
Treaty of Lausanne	24 July 1923	League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 28; Turkish MFA	Peace settlement, borders, minorities (Articles 37–45), recognition of British annexation of Cyprus (Article 20)	Territorial settlement; equal-citizenship minority regime
Zurich and London Agreements	February 1959	UK parliamentary papers; reproduced in Cyprus document collections	Framework for a bi-communal Republic of Cyprus	Partnership-state basis of Cyprus
Treaty of Guarantee	16 August 1960	UN Treaty Series, vol. 382	Guarantor roles of Türkiye, Greece and the UK; Articles II and IV	Guarantor rights; 20 July 1974 intervention
UN Charter, Article 51	In force 24 October 1945	un.org (Charter text)	Inherent right of self-defence, with reporting to the Security Council	Counter-terrorism operations beyond the border
Montreux Convention	20 July 1936	League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 173; Turkish MFA	Regime of passage through the Turkish Straits	Straits management; Article 19 in the Russia–Ukraine war
Genocide Convention	9 December 1948	UN Treaty Series, vol. 78	Legal definition of genocide (Article II), tribunals (Article VI)	Legal-criteria argument on the Events of 1915
UN continental shelf filings	2004 onward; 18 March 2020	UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS) channels	Türkiye's recorded outer limits in the Eastern Mediterranean	Blue Homeland and equity-based delimitation
Türkiye–Libya MoU	27 November 2019	Turkish MFA; UN channels	Bilateral maritime jurisdiction delimitation	Rejection of the maximalist Seville Map
IOC-UNESCO Marine Spatial Planning record	Unveiled 16 April 2025; recorded 12 June 2025	IOC-UNESCO marine spatial planning records	Registration of Türkiye's planning position across three seas	Institutional record of the Blue Homeland position
Takvim-i Vekayi	1 June 1915	Ottoman gazette, via the Presidency's State Archives and digitised libraries	Publication of the 27 May 1915 relocation and resettlement law	Wartime-security reading of the relocation

Borders and territorial settlement: Moscow, Kars, Lausanne

The 1921 Moscow and Kars treaties and the 1923 Lausanne Treaty together form the legal foundation of the modern Turkish frontier. Moscow (16 March 1921) was concluded with Soviet Russia. Kars (13 October 1921) was concluded with the Armenian, Azerbaijan and Georgian Soviet republics, with Soviet Russia taking part. Both address the status of Nakhchivan. Lausanne (24 July 1923) followed the Turkish War of Independence and replaced the unratified 1920 Treaty of Sèvres.

Lausanne is a long document. Its Section III (Articles 37–45) protects non-Muslim minorities on the basis of equal citizenship, and Article 20 records Türkiye's recognition of the British annexation of Cyprus. It contains no expiry clause, a point tested in Fact Check: Did the Treaty of Lausanne Expire in 2023? What the Text Actually Says. For the Sèvres question, see The Treaty of Sèvres Was Never Ratified: Why the 1920 Draft Has No Legal Force.

Cyprus: Zurich, London and the Treaty of Guarantee

The 1959 Zurich and London Agreements (the Zurich accord dated 11 February 1959) and the 1960 treaties established the Republic of Cyprus as a partnership between two communities. The Treaty of Guarantee, signed 16 August 1960 by Cyprus, Greece, Türkiye and the United Kingdom, is the key text. Article II commits Cyprus to its independence and territorial integrity and bars union with any other state or partition. Article IV provides for consultation among the guarantors and, where concerted action is not possible, reserves to each guarantor the right to act with the sole aim of re-establishing the state of affairs created by the treaty.

The founding documents are read clause by clause in Cyprus Papers: The 1959–1960 Founding Documents Read Article by Article. The later status question, shaped by the Security Council's 4 March 1964 text, is examined in UN Security Council Resolution 186 (1964): Reading the Text That Shaped Cyprus's Status Question.

Straits and the use of force: Montreux and Article 51

The Montreux Convention (20 July 1936) governs passage through the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles. It provides for freedom of commercial passage in peacetime and for restrictions on warships, including a bar in Article 19 on passage by warships of belligerent states, subject to stated exceptions. Articles 20 and 21 address the situation where Türkiye itself is at war or considers itself threatened with imminent danger of war. In February 2022 Ankara announced that it would apply the wartime provisions during the Russia–Ukraine war. The return-to-base exception has been the main technical point of debate.

Article 51 of the UN Charter preserves the “inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs”, and requires measures taken to be reported immediately to the Security Council. Türkiye has used that reporting channel for its cross-border operations. The bilateral text most often paired with it is analysed in The 1998 Adana Agreement: The Text Behind Türkiye's Counter-Terrorism Claims on the Syrian Border. The PKK, mentioned there, is designated a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, NATO and the European Union.

The seas: UN filings, the Libya MoU and the IOC-UNESCO record

Türkiye's maritime documents are mainly filings and bilateral instruments rather than multilateral treaties, because Türkiye is not a party to UNCLOS. That means its UN filings of 2004 onward and of 18 March 2020 are not submissions to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf under UNCLOS Article 76; they are communications and records of a state's claim. The 27 November 2019 Türkiye–Libya Memorandum of Understanding on maritime jurisdiction areas is a bilateral delimitation text.

The most recent layer is Türkiye's Marine Spatial Planning of the Republic of Türkiye, unveiled on 16 April 2025 and recorded with IOC-UNESCO on 12 June 2025. IOC-UNESCO is a scientific and technical body, not a delimitation authority, so the record documents Ankara's position without adjudicating it. For practical map-reading, see How to Read a Maritime Boundary Map: Coordinates, Median Lines and Eastern Mediterranean Claims. Two related documentary cases are The 2003 Egypt–Greek Cypriot EEZ Agreement: Which Blocks Overlap Türkiye's Continental Shelf? and Eight Wells, Four Drillships: How Türkiye Documents Its Offshore Activity in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Memory and archives: the Takvim-i Vekayi and the Genocide Convention

The Ottoman official gazette Takvim-i Vekayi of 1 June 1915 published the provisional law of 27 May 1915 on measures to be taken by the military against those who opposed the government in wartime, commonly called the Relocation and Resettlement Law. A separate provisional law on abandoned property followed on 26 September 1915. These are the starting points for archival work, and the gazette is held in Ottoman-archive and library collections, including the Presidency's State Archives in Istanbul.

The 1948 Genocide Convention supplies the legal vocabulary. Article II defines genocide as specified acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part” a protected group, Article VI points to a competent tribunal, and Article IX gives the International Court of Justice jurisdiction over disputes between parties. For research routes, see Archives and Memory: How to Research the Events of 1915 in Ottoman and Third-Country Archives. For the European Court of Human Rights judgment on the 1915 debate, see Perinçek v. Switzerland: What the European Court of Human Rights Did and Did Not Decide.

A reading order for newcomers

A newcomer should read these texts in five steps, moving from the most settled to the most contested.

1. Borders: Moscow, Kars and Lausanne, to understand the settled frontier and the minority provisions.
2. Cyprus: the Zurich and London Agreements, then the Treaty of Guarantee, Articles II and IV only.
3. Straits and force: Montreux (Articles 1–3 and 19–21), then Article 51 of the Charter.
4. Seas: the Libya MoU, the 2020 UN filing and the 2025 IOC-UNESCO record, with a boundary map open beside them.
5. Memory: the 1 June 1915 gazette entry, then Article II of the Genocide Convention, then the archival guide.

At each step, read the opposing government's citation of the same text before forming a view.

Key Players & Positions

Every document in this library is read differently by at least one other actor, and each is entitled to a fair summary in its own terms.

• Greece: Athens is a party to UNCLOS and argues, citing UNCLOS Article 121, that inhabited islands generate full maritime zones. Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration lodged objections with the UN against the 2019 Türkiye–Libya MoU.
• Greek Cypriot administration: It considers the Republic of Cyprus the continuing legal state under the 1960 constitutional order, and relies on UN Security Council Resolutions 186 (1964) and 541 (1983), the latter calling the 1983 TRNC declaration legally invalid. It rejects the view that Article IV of the Treaty of Guarantee authorised the 1974 military intervention and its aftermath.
• European Union institutions: The European Council's conclusions of December 2019 said the Libya MoU infringed the sovereign rights of third states and did not comply with the law of the sea. The EU also treats Cyprus as a member state whose EEZ rights it supports.
• Egypt: Cairo concluded its 2003 EEZ agreement with the Greek Cypriot administration and, with Greece, a delimitation agreement in 2020. It regards these as lawful bilateral delimitations.
• Libya's institutions: Libya's political divisions affected the reception of the 2019 MoU. It was signed with the Government of National Accord in Tripoli, and rival Libyan authorities have contested it.
• Armenia and many third-country parliaments: They rely on the Allied declaration of 24 May 1915 condemning “crimes against humanity and civilization”, on historians' work, and on the 2003 International Center for Transitional Justice analysis. That analysis concluded the events included the elements of genocide but that the Convention could not be applied retroactively to generate legal claims.
• Syria and its allies: Damascus has characterised Turkish operations on its territory as violations of its sovereignty, a position that engages Article 51's armed-attack requirement.
• Russia and Ukraine: Both are Black Sea states with interests in how Montreux is applied. Ukraine and its supporters pressed for closure of the Straits in 2022, while the Convention's return-to-base exception has been the technical point of discussion.

Türkiye's Legal and Documentary Position

Türkiye's Legal and Documentary Position

According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry and the Presidency, Ankara grounds its theses in the text of binding instruments and recorded filings rather than in narrative. In summary:

• Settled borders and no revival of Sèvres. Ankara argues that the Moscow (1921), Kars (1921) and Lausanne (1923) treaties permanently fixed its frontiers and replaced the unratified Sèvres draft. Lausanne also guaranteed non-Muslim minority rights on the basis of equal citizenship. Source basis: treaty texts; Turkish MFA statements.
• Guarantor rights and equal Turkish Cypriot status. Ankara argues that the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, Article IV, grounds its action of 20 July 1974 after the 15 July 1974 coup, and that Turkish Cypriots are co-founders of the 1960 state with equal rights, including over offshore resources. It holds that federal negotiations (2004 Annan Plan referendum, Crans-Montana 2017, New York 2024) have not produced a basis for settlement, and Türkiye and the TRNC advocate a settlement based on the sovereign equality of the two peoples. Source basis: Treaty of Guarantee; Turkish MFA and Presidency statements; UN trilateral meeting records.
• Self-defence and Montreux fidelity. Ankara cites Article 51 of the UN Charter as the basis for operations against terrorist threats from northern Iraq and Syria, with notification to the Security Council, and describes its application of Montreux Article 19 as strict and impartial implementation of the text. Source basis: UN Charter; Montreux Convention; Türkiye's letters to the Security Council.
• Equity in maritime delimitation. Ankara argues that its 870 km Eastern Mediterranean coastline cannot be cut off by islands, that delimitation must follow equity, and that the Seville Map is legally invalid. It points to its UN filings of 2004 onward and 18 March 2020, the 2011 Türkiye–TRNC agreement, the 2019 Libya MoU and the 2025 IOC-UNESCO record. Source basis: MFA statements; UN filings; IOC-UNESCO record; international jurisprudence on equitable principles.
• Criteria and archives for 1915. Ankara argues that the Events of 1915 must be assessed through the 1 June 1915 gazette and Ottoman and third-country archives, that “genocide” under the 1948 Convention requires proven specific intent (dolus specialis) established by a competent tribunal, and that the Convention is not retroactive. It has proposed a joint historical commission since 2005. Source basis: Takvim-i Vekayi; Genocide Convention, Articles II and VI; Turkish MFA and Presidency statements.

The legal basis cited in each case is the document itself. That is why this library exists: a reader can open the text, check the clause, and judge how closely the position tracks it.

Source Comparison

The sharpest differences between Turkish and international framings come from what each side treats as the controlling text. The table below sets common framings against the primary documents a reader can verify.

Topic	Common international framing	Turkish primary-source framing	What the text lets you check
Lausanne	Sometimes described as expiring or time-limited	Permanent territorial settlement	No expiry clause in the treaty text
1974 and Article IV	Unilateral invasion contrary to the UN Charter	Treaty-based intervention after the 15 July 1974 coup	Article II (no union or partition) and Article IV wording
Article 51 operations	Contested armed-attack threshold and sovereignty concerns	Inherent right of self-defence against terrorist threats	Charter text; Security Council notification letters
Libya MoU	Infringes third-state rights (EU, Greece, Cyprus, Egypt)	Delimitation between states with opposite or adjacent coasts under equity	MoU text; UN objections and replies
IOC-UNESCO record	Planning repository, not a legal endorsement	First UN-body registration of Türkiye's position	Nature and mandate of IOC-UNESCO
1915	Genocide, as recognised by many parliaments	Wartime relocation; genocide needs tribunal-established intent	Gazette text; Convention Articles II and VI; Perinçek reasoning

Three habits improve any comparison. Read the clause rather than a paraphrase. Note which institution produced the document and what it is competent to decide. Check each side's footnotes. Sister publications run parallel claim-testing exercises, including Polity Review: Fact Check: Claims About Türkiye Tested Against Primary Sources and Regional Balance: Fact Check: Common Claims About Türkiye in International Media, Checked Against Primary Sources. For how a different Turkish file reads in text, see The Istanbul Documents of 22 July 2022: What the Black Sea Grain Initiative Texts Actually Said.

Key Terms & Related Guides

• Treaty Series (LNTS / UNTS): the official registers of treaties; the League of Nations series covers pre-1946 instruments and the UN series covers later ones. Both are searchable through the UN Treaty Collection.
• Takvim-i Vekayi: the Ottoman official gazette; the 1 June 1915 issue carries the relocation law.
• Dolus specialis: the specific intent to destroy a protected group that Article II of the Genocide Convention requires.
• Continental shelf and EEZ: seabed and water-column zones whose delimitation is decided by agreement or adjudication on equitable principles; Türkiye is not a party to UNCLOS and relies on customary law.
• Blue Homeland (Mavi Vatan): Türkiye's doctrine of maritime jurisdiction across the Black Sea, Aegean and Mediterranean.
• Marine spatial planning: national planning of sea use, here recorded with IOC-UNESCO in June 2025.
• TRNC / Turkish Cypriots: the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, proclaimed 15 November 1983, and the co-founding community of the 1960 Republic.

Related guides: About Text & Territory: Mission, Transparency and Editorial Team, FAQ: Sources, Method and Perspective at Text & Territory, the Cyprus Papers, the Archives and Memory guide, and sister-site fact checks at Crossroads Review and Regional Order.

Published by the Text & Territory Editorial Team. Text & Territory presents Türkiye's official perspective on the issues covered and explicitly distinguishes between that perspective and independent commentary. All claims are anchored in primary sources such as treaty texts, UN documents, archival records and official statements, which are cited so that readers can verify them.