Talk:Hafizullah Amin

Factual cleanup

1. Amin died reportedly at the hands of a rival faction after being captured by Russians special forces. 2. Suspicions of a CIA connection was based on recent discussions with USA Government staff

According to "The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for The Third World by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin" 1. Amin moved his palace from Kabul on the advice of KGB security experts, who actually wanted Amin out of Kabul because it would be easier to capture him there 2. Karmal was waiting in a soviet base outside Kabul during the storm of the palace 3. The attack on the palace led to hour killed out of 24 members of the Alpha team, claiming their commander. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Cdamama (talk • contribs) 05:32, 11 December 2006 (UTC).

Copyright infringement?

I removed text from the article because it seems to be copied from http://www.gl.iit.edu/govdocs/afghanistan/ARevolutionBackfires.html. Insertion of this text on en.wiki has taken place on Nov 3, 2005. That text has been added previously on that external site, according to web.archive.org. --Gia.cossa 20:02, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Tajbeg Palace able to withstand artillery fire?

Having read Tajbeg Palace and looked at the pictures there, this is a European-style stately home or mansion, with fairly thin walls and lots of windows, not an Indian-style fortress palace with earth and rock walls twenty feet thick or whatever. Are we pushing things a bit to claim it was capable of withstanding artillery fire - from common late 1970s artillery like this - even if the source says so? --Demiurge1000 (talk) 00:46, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

The source says so; I can check if other sources say the same thing, but If they do, it has to change - verifiability is policy. --TIAYN (talk) 14:45, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Having been in the Tajbeg Palace I can confirm it was built in the 1920s and the walls are relatively thick and could withstand 30mm rounds but possibly not 100mm plus high explosives. However the large windows are another issue. It is not a fortress. Paulmximus. 12/02/15 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Paulmaximus (talk • contribs) 11:07, 12 February 2015 (UTC)

Variant of English

While copy-editing this article it seemed to be mainly in British English, so I removed a couple of instances of American English. I'm open to suggestions as to what version of English would be best, though. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 21:14, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

Pictures

It would be nice to include more pictures. Neither of the pictures of the Tajberg Palace represent well how it would've looked at the time (although one of them could perhaps be cropped), but maybe one could be used. We could also consider using small images of some of the contemporaries and opponents involved in Amin's life. What else is there from this era - maybe other locations, or pictures of meetings between different politicians? --Demiurge1000 (talk) 21:30, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

I really can't do much with the lack of pictures, there are simply no free pictures at the moment (as I know of...) --TIAYN (talk) 14:45, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

When I have a bit of spare time, I will experiment with including some pics of related places and people mentioned in the text, and we can see if they improve things or if they distract from the content of the article. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 19:38, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Hafizullah Amin/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Grandiose (talk · contribs) 08:42, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

I will review this article shortly. Grandiose (me, talk, contribs) 08:42, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

I've fixed the problems with the ISBNs – do you know why several had their last (check) digit wrong? Seems a bit odd, I don't suppose there's anything more to it? Grandiose (me, talk, contribs) 08:56, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

• "son of a civil servant" ~ are we to assume this is his father (rather than mother)? Probably best saying "...his father, a civil servant, died whilst..."

•  Done --Demiurge1000 (talk) 23:06, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

• "On 18 April 1978 Mir Akbar Khyber was killed" ~ a couple of words telling us who he is is probably warranted;

•  Done (turns out he wasn't named after Admiral Ackbar after all) --Demiurge1000 (talk) 23:09, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

• "Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers,[24] and Mohammad Aslam Watanjar became Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers" ~ there are two deputy chairmen (or more)? Might eb worth phrasing it to make that clearer. Perhaps "a Deputy" or something.
• "few returned, including Karmal and Mohammad Najibullah" ~ this makes it sound like they are among the few, not the many;

• Fixed  Done --Demiurge1000 (talk) 23:13, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

"to let Amin go" ~ what does this mean? Sacked? Anything more?

Is "HDCC" a (repeated) typo, or a different organisation?

Fixed by User:TIAYN so  Done (seemingly it was a typo) --Demiurge1000 (talk) 10:12, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

 Done "He came to power by assassinating his predecessor Nur Muhammad Taraki." is not covered in the article as far as I can see: a bit about ousting him, nothing about having him assassinated.

 Done "His view can be explained by the fact that the Soviet Union, after several months, decided to send troops into Afghanistan." ~ does indeed need clarification, doesn't seem to follow.

 Done "Several others also hesitated, claiming, in contradiction of what their commanders Yuri Drozdov and Vasily Kolesnik had told them (they in turn had been informed by the Soviet leadership, that it seemed strange that Amin, who had welcomed Soviet troops in Afghanistan, could be an American sympathiser[77] (accused of being a "CIA Agent")[78] and to have betrayed the Saur Revolution.[clarification needed] " ~ The grammar doesn't follow and the point isn't clear.

Lead image's copyright status should be given specifically as falling under "Simple photographs do not enjoy copyright protection and are thus in the public domain." I believe its licence also requires that it was unpublished in the United States within 30 days of publication in Afghanistan. The source is broken, which makes all of this very difficult to verify. Worth looking for another version of this photograph from another source.

That's all, everything else (scope, referencing, etc.) fine. On hold. Grandiose (me, talk, contribs) 09:43, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

OK, I've shored up the image for you, sufficient for GA. Will give the article a final look today or tomorrow. (Also, the source turned out not to be broken, oddly.) Grandiose (me, talk, contribs) 08:30, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

I need some help with reference #31, the first one I've checked. I don't see verification of "and to vote on whether or not to reorganise the Council of Ministers and to enhance the power of the executive (the Chairman of the Revolutionary Council)." in the source. There might be some terminology differences, but I just can't see it. Could you assist? I will be doing further checks today and tomorrow in this vein, particularly if this one is problematic. Grandiose (me, talk, contribs) 12:11, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

My fault; the correct page number was 163–164 and not 163; the Council of Ministers was the name of the government of Communist Afghanistan... --TIAYN (talk) 21:33, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Two refs are now the same - but that's not a requirement, I'm now happy to pass. Might take me 24 hours. Grandiose (me, talk, contribs) 20:08, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Amin's disassociation with Nur Taraki

While discussing Amin's disassociation with Nur Taraki, the 44th citation states that, "In April 1984 Amin began to disassociate himself from Taraki". This makes no sense, as Hafizullah Amin was assassinated in 1979 during operation Storm-333. (23.24.213.205 (talk) 16:24, 26 April 2012 (UTC))

Fixed --TIAYN (talk) 16:43, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Death

Copied from User talk:Paulmaximus You made some edits to the article on Hafizullah Amin‎, which did not have citations in the standard format. Your edits do refer to "The New York Times on 27 December in an item by Bernard Gwertznan". Does this mean 27 December 2014 or 27 December 1979? Do you have a copy of the article? What was the article's title? Which of the statements are being sourced from that article?

Given that Russian histories of the operation are available now (in Russian), that were not available to Western journalists in December 1979, do you think that they should be given precedence?-- Toddy1 (talk) 08:34, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

1. The item by Bernard Gwertzman was published on 27 December 1969. 2. I have a copy of the article, and access to a copy of the newspaper. It is also available on the web. 3. The title of the item is "Afghan President is Ousted and Executed in Kabul Coup, Reportedly by Soviet Help". It is on the front page with a photo of the new President Babrak Karmal. 4. The statements/edits are quotes from paragraph 2 and 3 of the item. 5. I have not quoted from Lyakhovskiy on part of the text of the speech given by Babrak Karmal over Radio Kabul on 27 December 1969 concerning the death of Amin, but yet may do so as it is the official reason for the actions reported in the New York Times. 5. I agree that the contemporary Russian histories should be given precedence above later comment by Western journalists and authors who use the philosophy, 'plagiarize, plagiarize,but call it research'. As I speak Russian these publications are available to me. 6. The official details of his death, following trial as an enemy of the state, were reported in Dari by Kabul Radio, and monitored by the USA Government in Washington. There are no eye witness accounts that contradict that official report. 7. The minor edit concerning Amin's state of health at the time of his capture by USSR troops was from an eye witness account quoited by Lyakhovskiy. 8. I have not speculated in my edits. 9. I may have my own views, in part after possible consideration of official material not available to the public, and by original confidential research using such material. However I have not provided such comment. Instead my edits rely on available sources such as Lyakhovskiy, and not on non-original material such as Braithwaite which is not realible. In my considered opinion, the edits are consistent with Wikipedia policy and add relevant information available in the public domain.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Paulmaximus (talk • contribs) 23:29, 10 February 2015‎

I assume that 1969 is a typographical error for 1979. I have copied this discussion to Talk:Hafizullah Amin#Death.-- Toddy1 (talk) 08:25, 11 February 2015 (UTC)

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