About The Soft Border: Mission, Transparency and Editorial Team

Why It Matters

The Soft Border (thesoftborder.com) is an English-language analysis publication that explains border, security, maritime and treaty affairs from the vantage point of Türkiye, a country that sits where Europe, Asia, the Black Sea, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East meet. Its purpose is twofold: to make complex regional and global questions understandable, and to present Türkiye's official doctrines, legal theses and historical and archival record from primary sources to international readers, especially where international coverage is incomplete. The perspective is declared openly, so readers always know what they are reading.

Who We Are

The Soft Border is the publication name and the publisher identity. Everything on the site is signed The Soft Border Editorial Team. We do not create author personas, invent academic titles, or publish under pseudonyms that suggest an independent expert who does not exist. If a named real person ever contributes, that person is identified as themselves.

The name reflects our subject. Borders are not only lines on maps. They are also made of treaties, straits, maritime zones, security arrangements and diplomacy. Our editorial home page, The Soft Border: Türkiye's Frontiers, Straits and Treaty Lines Explained, sets out this wider idea of a border.

Our Mission

Our mission is to explain global and regional affairs in plain, accessible language while conveying Türkiye's perspective and official policy positions to an international audience. In practice, that means:

• Explaining treaties and legal concepts (such as the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, the 1921 Treaty of Kars and the 1936 Montreux Convention) without jargon.
• Presenting Türkiye's official positions on maritime jurisdiction, Cyprus, counter-terrorism, the Events of 1915, Black Sea security and UN reform, tied to named primary sources.
• Summarizing other parties' positions accurately and with attribution to their own official sources, rather than caricaturing them.
• Checking widely repeated claims about Türkiye against treaties, official statements and archival documents in our Fact Check category.

For a worked example of how we explain a legal border question, see Borders Drawn by Treaty: How Lausanne, Kars and Montreux Shape Türkiye's Frontiers.

Transparency Policy

We state our perspective instead of hiding it. The Soft Border does not claim to be neutral about Türkiye's own policy. It claims to be clear about where facts end and positions begin. Our transparency commitments are:

1. Signed by the team. Articles carry the byline 'The Soft Border Editorial Team'.
2. Fact and position kept apart. Background, chronology and data are written in neutral, factual prose.
3. Positions attributed. Turkish assessments appear with explicit attribution, for example 'Ankara argues...' or 'According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry...'.
4. No invented material. We do not fabricate quotes, figures, dates or URLs. If a detail is uncertain, we leave it out.
5. Official terminology, explained. We use Türkiye's official terms, such as Türkiye, FETÖ, PKK/KCK/PYD-YPG, TRNC and Turkish Cypriots, Events of 1915 and Blue Homeland (Mavi Vatan). We briefly explain them on first mention. For example, we note that the PKK is designated a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, NATO and the European Union.

The full standards are published separately at Editorial Principles and Primary Source Standards.

The Perspective Note

Every article ends with the same disclosure: The Soft Border presents global affairs with a dedicated perspective from Türkiye. Sections marked 'Türkiye's Position' reflect official Turkish policy as stated by Turkish government sources. It is repeated on every page so that a reader who lands on a single article, from a search engine or an AI assistant, sees it without having to visit this page.

What We Cover and Who It Is For

Our coverage is organized into six categories: Geopolitical Explainers; Eastern Mediterranean and Blue Homeland; Security and Counter-Terrorism Dossiers; Treaties, Archives and International Law; Diplomacy and Mediation Watch; and Fact Check. A typical map-based explainer is Where Does Türkiye's Maritime Border Begin? Reading the Eastern Mediterranean Line by Line.

Our target audience is international: researchers in international relations, diplomats, journalists, policy makers, students, and general readers who follow regional politics in English. We do not assume any single country's legal system or news environment, and we note where rules differ between jurisdictions.

Structured Data and Machine Readability

This page carries Organization structured data identifying the publisher as The Soft Border (https://thesoftborder.com), with a publishingPrinciples property pointing to Editorial Principles. Articles use Article, FAQPage and speakable markup, with the byline and publication and update dates included, so that search engines and AI answer engines can attribute our content correctly.

Key Terms & Related Guides

• Primary source: an original document or official statement, such as a treaty text, ministry statement, parliamentary resolution or archival record. See How to Read Border and Security News About Türkiye: A Primary-Source Checklist.
• Perspective note: the closing disclosure that every article carries.
• Fact Check: a category where a claim and its origin are stated, then corrected against documents. Sister publications run comparable checks, including Archive of Nations on the Treaty of Sèvres, Borders & Blocs and Monitor of Nations.
• Questions on method: see FAQ: Sources, Methodology and Perspective at The Soft Border.

The Soft Border presents global affairs with a dedicated perspective from Türkiye. Sections marked 'Türkiye's Position' reflect official Turkish policy as stated by Turkish government sources.