User talk:Kathovo/Archive 2

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Barnstar!

ܫܠܡܐ Djwilms, I truly admire your work concerning Syriac Christianity. BTW why don't you nominate some of your article? They could easily pass as GA or even FA.--Rafy talk 00:31, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

Thanks very much for your kind words. I will get round to it one of these days, but right at present I am desperately busy trying to get my new book on the Church of the East (link: http://www.eastandwestpublishing.com/forthcoming/the-martyred-church/) out. It will be published in two weeks' time, and I am still making final amendments to the proofs. That's cut down my editing on Wikipedia drastically during the past few months. Any substantial revisions to my stuff will have to wait until the autumn, I'm afraid!

Djwilms (talk) 08:53, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

P.S. Thanks very much for the barnstar. Now I know what 'barnstar' is in Syriac!

P.P.S. You may be interested to know that Gorgias Press will eventually be publishing my English translations of Bar Hebraeus and Mari, bits of which are floating around on Wikipedia in my articles on the Nestorian patriarchs. The complete Chronicon Ecclesiasticum of Bar Hebraeus by end-2012, and Mari's History of the Eastern Patriarchs by mid-2014. In both cases the original Syriac/Arabic will be printed alongside my translation. It will be good to have both the original text and a translation of these authors conveniently available.

Translation Madenhaya

Shlomo ahuno,

i hope you can help me,

i got this message from a person i discussed about the syriac langauge, but i just understand the west syriac dialect and just a bit of the east syriac (madenhaya) i would to know if you could translate it for me in english, they are just two sentence.

"lena tre lishane he, ina ley parmakh al ekhdala kulmndi sab iny farquta o halbat iny khakma khabrane makh ekhdala. ina en tet mara har liny farquta reba gora, hama b hamzemakh khrena bit suret o akid kolmndi bt parmet lela?!"

Taudi sagiElvis214 (talk) 21:46, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

The town of Jish

Since have been dealing with Arab Christians and identity questions, i would like you to look into the Jish article on wikipedia. It is one thing the Christian population is related as Arab Christians by the Israeli authorities, and another that Palestinian nationalists relate to them as "Palestinian Christians". However, the residents belong to Maronite [1][2][3] and Melkite churches, and define themselves as Phoenician and Aramaic peoples. According to Israeli news report they even still retain a "Hebrew-like" language, traced to Aramaic [4] (source in Hebrew). Another thing regarding the Maronites article - there is a very interesting academic study on Maronites in Israel (about 7,000 of them in Galilee) - do they view themselves as Arab or not, here - [5].Greyshark09 (talk) 20:59, 10 August 2011 (UTC)

I will take a look at the theses. I remember reading a similar article about Maronites in Israel trying to "re-learn" Aramaic. Anyway just to be on the safe side, Maronites shouldn't be considered neither as Arabs nor as Aramameans, Syriacs, Phoenicians etc... Since there are some very conflicting opinions regarding this issue.--Rafy talk 23:21, 10 August 2011 (UTC)

The thesis had some unexpected results I must admit. When you follow mainstream media you immediately get the notion that the Israeli society is strictly divided into Jews and Arabs (Muslims and Christians). That a slight majority of "1948 Arabs" Maronites doesn't identify as being Arabs is very surprising.--Rafy talk 13:20, 12 August 2011 (UTC)

If that is the notion of the media you got - then it is largely incorrect. Interestingly, the Israeli society somehow perpetuates self identification. Thus, the ethnoreligious communities, which tended to self-identify as "Arab", find a possibility and an urge to change that. The Israeli Druze have been the only Druze community so far to seize their primary self-identification as Arab people (even though that is pretty much their legacy and culture), in favor of distinct Druze ethnoreligious identity. Similarly, the Maronites of Galilee joined the trend. Not without reason i told you of the ethnic and religios diversity of Galilee - its spectrum is unbelievable when you see it. I would also mention the Circassians of the Galilee, who strive to keep their language and identity, though they are Muslims like most of their Arab neighbours (i don't know if that is the situation in Syria). Even the residents of the apparently Arab village of Abu Gosh, near Jerusalem, recently began digging for their Circassian origins [6]. My guess for such "diversitization", which is the contrary to the "Arabization", "Turkification" and "Iranization", is due to the nature of Jewish ethnoreligious society, which doesn't force "Judaization" and is actually very reluctant to receive even self identified Jews and Israelites (like the case of Falashas, many of whom have troubles to be acknowleged as "Jewish" despite their centuries old Israelite self-identification and Semitic language and tradition of Israelite ancestry).Greyshark09 (talk) 10:24, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Speaking of Maronites in Jish - i know the problematic issue of Maronite identification, but interestingly they self identify as "Phoenician-Aramean". This is probably one of the only cases for such self-categorization [7].Greyshark09 (talk) 19:21, 14 August 2011 (UTC) Greyshark09 (talk) 19:21, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Replaceable fair use File:William Warda.jpg

Thanks for uploading File:William Warda.jpg. I noticed the description page specifies that the media is being used under a claim of fair use, but its use in Wikipedia articles fails our first non-free content criterion in that it illustrates a subject for which a freely licensed media could reasonably be found or created that provides substantially the same information or which could be adequately covered with text alone. If you believe this media is not replaceable, please:

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If you have uploaded other non-free media, consider checking that you have specified how these images fully satisfy our non-free content criteria. You can find a list of description pages you have edited by clicking on this link. Note that even if you follow steps 1 and 2 above, non-free media which could be replaced by freely licensed alternatives will be deleted 2 days after this notification (7 days if uploaded before 13 July 2006), per our non-free content policy. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. Fut.Perf. ☼ 14:44, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

Nasr

The rebels did take nasr, otherwise how did they capture a brigadier general between nasr and Zawiya. Zenithfel (talk) 15:30, 12 August 2011 (UTC)

It have been suggested that they were driven back, check the map's talk page. I'm not following the news anymore but I try to keep the maps as up-to-date as possible.--Rafy talk 15:44, 12 August 2011 (UTC)

Looks like vandalism to me. If you check the timeline at August 10, you will see the statement "but were forced to pull back several kilometers after coming under fire from loyalist rocket batteries." Then you will see "not in citation given". This is true , it is not in the citation given. Who ever wrote it totally made it up. Here is the source that they use: http://www.ajc.com/business/libyan-rebels-claim-they-1098629.html Zenithfel (talk) 15:57, 12 August 2011 (UTC)

When you see it yourself on the timeline, I will revert the vandalism. In the mean time, you can add nasr to red. Zenithfel (talk) 15:58, 12 August 2011 (UTC)

Fair enough. I've corrected it.--Rafy talk 20:53, 12 August 2011 (UTC)

Tawarga

It seems the rebel claim of taking Tawarga was premature with today reports of more fighting at that town with another three rebels dead. So please push back the rebel territory a bit there to the border of Tawarga. [8] Thank you in advance. EkoGraf (talk) 22:32, 12 August 2011 (UTC)

Tawarga was captured only on August 12. The three dead is in reference to the battle itself. Zenithfel (talk) 09:19, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

No, the three dead in the reference is from August 12. Nine in total have been killed since the start of the battle. If three died on the 12th than that means there is still ongoing fighting in the town. I am not against rebel territory reaching Tawarga, but I am against rebel territory going pass Tawarga since obviously they haven't secured the city yet. And today the loyalists are even claiming they managed to push back the rebels. This allegedly happened after the journalists left the town. So I strongly advise pushing the rebel territory just a bit back to the town itself and not past it until the situation is resolved. Hope you make the changes Raffy. EkoGraf (talk) 16:14, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

I have pushed the red area back to the southern outskirts of Tawargha.--Rafy talk 18:36, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

Help

How can I edit a SVG file in Wikipedia Wael.Mogherbi (talk) 13:08, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

Gharyan

Please put Gharyan to red. Rebels control the town, and now claim Mizdah. No fighting occuring right now in Gharyan (except in assabah 10 miles from Gharyan) Zenithfel (talk) 19:52, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Map request: Tripoli

I have a map request to make: We need an updated version of the old Tripoli uprisings map [9] to add to the August battle article. I don't have anything that can edit SVG, but since we already have the base map, I hope it shouldn't be too hard for you.

Current information is that: Tajoura is reportedly captured (besides the besieged Mitiga airport) [10], so I would color it red (minus a green patch in the airport)

There is reportedly heavy fighting in the districts of Souq al Juma, Arrada [11], Zawiat al Dahmania [12], Ben Ashur[13], and Fashloum [14]. I would use hollow red circles to designate heavy fighting, without further information - all of those districts are in eastern Tripoli; basically, the eastern half of the city is being fought over. Pictorially, it makes much more sense then just talking about districts that the audience likely does not recognize. Seleucus (talk) 03:27, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

By updating that map of Tripoli from back in March the map in the 2011 Tripoli clashes article now shows the situation from today. There needs to be an archived version of the situation in Tripoli from March 1, in that article. Could you do something about that or do I remove the map altogether since the map now shows the current situation (which is all well and good for the article 2011 Battle of Tripoli but not for that one). Also, Mitiga is not surrounded, international journalists were taken to the it and they confirmed loyalist holding the roads to it. EkoGraf (talk) 13:26, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

Tripoli map

Mitiga airbase under rebel control, also university area as well. I don;t think rebels are in Abu Salim though.Zenithfel (talk) 13:27, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Have a conscience

Wikipedia is not the place for the manifestation of your own, personal views, and delete others. I have sufficient rights to the Russian Wikipedia, here I forgot my password and log globally for some reason I can not. I know the rules of Wikipedia, so please stop your mess, and then I'll have to complain to the administrator, and talk page to ask to put a partial protection.89.250.157.71 (talk) 19:29, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

And remember, WP:NOTCENSORED -- 89.250.157.71 (talk) 19:36, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

I do not do damage other people's records, it is currently engaged in you. I put the sight of an alternative point of discussion in the debate (!!!). Wikipedia encyclopedia and independent as you would not want to see is not objectionable in view of the text, it will not succeed.--89.250.157.71 (talk) 19:56, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Abu Salim

Please modify map, someone put Abu Salim as rebel-held on the Tripoli map. BBC and Al Jazeera reported today that fighting is still ongoing there [15][16]. Thank you. EkoGraf (talk) 13:36, 26 August 2011 (UTC)

One problem, I can't simply revert, because the old version of the map had Garghur as rebel-held, the new version has it properly as loyalist-held. Any way that you can fix this? That both Abu Salim and Garghur are loyalist-held. EkoGraf (talk) 13:56, 26 August 2011 (UTC)

Shagarakti-Shuriash

Why has this article been tagged as part of the Wikipedia:WikiProject Assyria area? Shagarakti-Shuriash was a Kassite Babylonian king, not an Assyrian. BigEars42 (talk) 00:55, 29 August 2011 (UTC)

I had not thought of adding projects as I'm fairly new and the WikiProject Ancient Near East one seemed to be moribund and I did not know where to find alternative ones. On a separate subject, do you know where I can find a decent translation of Adad-nirari I's memorial tablet (apparently there's only one or possibly two, but its in pieces), sometimes called his epic. The Adad-nirari I page doesn't mention it - frankly, it's a rather bleak looking page. Now there's a project... BigEars42 (talk) 01:42, 29 August 2011 (UTC)

Rename to Libyan Revolution

You should also cast your oppose vote in the Rename to Libyan Revolution section of the discussion page of the main article on the war, not just the Rename proposals section. EkoGraf (talk) 04:24, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

I think that the decision should and will be based on the outcome of the discussion and no the tally of the votes. It's is then more important to give a counter-argument than to cast a vote.--Rafy talk 15:18, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Christian minorities in Syria

Check the recent edits by George on Christian Arabs - seems to me a complete POV pushing and WP:OR (Assyrians make up a small group of Christians in Syria, while Arab Christians are the majority?!).Greyshark09 (talk) 17:03, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

I think of the two million Christians in Syria Greek Orthodox and Catholics form around 60%, Syriac Christians about 600,000 - 700,000 and the rest are Armenian Orthodox and Catholics. Greek Christians are traditionally considered Arabs although many would claim Melkite (Syriac) or even Greek ancestry. Accurate numbers of their affiliation are hard to find since all Christians including Armenians are officially considered Arabs by the state.--Rafy talk 19:13, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

Well, fortunately Ba'athist establishment is not the mainstream media in the world, they also call Syrian Jews as "Mosaic Arabs", and if you deny your "arabness" you are not a good citizen. Anyway this is surprising that Melkites and Orthodox are a majority, the sources say much smaller numbers for those groups: 200,000 [17] (probably only Orthodox) and 520,000 [18] (Melkite+Orthodox). Can you find better sources (perhaps in Arabic or Syriac)?Greyshark09 (talk) 20:31, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

I doubt we can find any sources on this issue. Ethnolgue puts Assyrians around 700,000 and Armenians at around 320,000, so I guess that the rest are possibly Arabs.--Rafy talk 09:23, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

To my surprise i did find some better sources, than currently are used. I will update the numbers later this week, however i'm having a serious definition problem - Dr. Walid Phares defines Arab Christians as largely "Greek Orthodox" [19], and it seems he does not relate to Melkites. We however did include Melkites in the population box, which might be a synth. I think more sources are needed to define who are the Arab Christians - certainly Greek Orthodox (and Arab Orthodox), Latin Catholic and possibly Melkite.Greyshark09 (talk) 21:05, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

From digging out the estimations - it seems the Arab Christians and Melkites indeed had been a majority among syrian christians until the Iraq War. Yet, they are now just a big minority, with Assyrian and other Syriacs make up some 700k - the biggest Christian group out of 1.7 million christians (up from 50-100k in the early 90s), with Armenian (~300k), Maronite (small) and Arab Christians (~500k Melkites+Orthodox), not changing significantly in size over the past 2 decades.Greyshark09 (talk) 21:10, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

I don't think the refugees were included in the +700,000 figure mentioned in Ethnologue. The total number of all Syriac Christians should now be around one million I'm not sure about Melkites though, Sources regarding this subject are scarce. Could you add any references you found to the article?--Rafy talk 18:55, 11 September 2011 (UTC)

This is quiet good source (better than listed in the article, but probably underestimates Assyro-Chaldeans at just 40,000), but it is from 2001, and probably relates to mid 1990s [20]. Christians were ~1.7 million, according to 2006 US Department of State report (probably reached 2.0 million since). Seems that the increase in christian numbers is for Assyro-Chaldean and Armenian communities alone. Further, they say "great majority of Christians belong to Eastern churches", though later they claim the opposite "The largest Christian denomination was the Greek Orthodox Church" [21]. BBC review fom 2005 says number of Christians is somewhere 970 (World Christian Database, probably outdated)-1,700 thousands (per US Department of State)[22]. I will search for more and more updated ones.Greyshark09 (talk) 21:35, 11 September 2011 (UTC)

A source on refugee estimation of Assyrians in Syria - 350,000-550,000 adding to original several hundreds of thousand strong Assyrian community [23].Greyshark09 (talk) 21:52, 11 September 2011 (UTC)

Merit

Just the the merit. Hawid basima raba :) Chaldean (talk) 09:51, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

GA reviews

I see that you have nominated Simele massacre for GA; I'll review it if you're willing to look at my GAN, the F-22. Sp33dyphil ^{"Ad astra"} 01:36, 11 September 2011 (UTC)

Aramaic primacy

Hi, I noted your sensible edits. Do you have any idea what the correct WP:RS supported title for this page, based on Eastern Church tradition/usage should be? Evidently not "Aramaic primacy", but what? In ictu oculi (talk) 01:07, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, interesting, so what is the correct English title for the view - even though not all Assyrian churches hold it? Just "Aramaic original New Testament"?? In ictu oculi (talk) 14:29, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

The problem is that both "Greek primacy" and "Aramaic primacy" are wikipedia blogger neologisms + OR + non-NPOV, the former needs deleting, the latter needs renaming which English the Syrian church (or some other WP:RS) actually use. In ictu oculi (talk) 15:08, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

New Book!

Hello, Congratulations and thank you for you new book! I'm really looking forward to reading it. Best regards.--Rafy talk 20:35, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

Dear Rafy,

You might have to wait a while! I've just been to amazon.co.uk and amazon.com to order half a dozen copies for friends of mine, and was suprised to discover that it is 'temporarily out of stock'. Considering it only went on sale yesterday, I was amazed. I've just emailed my publishers to find out what is going on. I may be reduced to ordering copies on amazon.fr, where it can still be found.

Now that I've finally got some time on my hands, I'm pressing ahead with a series of new Wikipedia articles on the dioceses of the Syriac Orthodox Church. I'm ploughing through Chabot's French translation of Michael the Syrian (which I need to read for the introduction to my English translation of Bar Hebraeus for Gorgias Press, just so I can estimate how much Bar Hebraeus plagiarised from Michael), and putting the bishops I come across on Wikipedia.

Djwilms (talk) 02:04, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

Progress on population section of Maronite Chruch article

The "population" section is quite mature, though still needs some additions and work, before we split it into a separate "Maronites" article. I also created the Maronites in Israel page, some of which can be added to "population section" as well. I would appreciate if you take a look at the newly created page Maronites in Israel - some criticism won't hurt.Greyshark09 (talk) 18:39, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

It has been long overdue. The article looks very decent, do you suggest merging it with the future Maronites article? I will split the section and create stubs in some other languages tomorrow. --Rafy talk 19:18, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

I simply suggest to further develop the "population" section of Maronite Church and soon split the entire section to Maronites article (it can even be done now, though not entirely ready). What do you mean you shall split a section and create other lang. stubs?Greyshark09 (talk) 17:25, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

I meant the population section as you mentioned before. I could make a number of stubs of the same article in other languages including Arabic though this might prove controversial there.--Rafy talk 19:48, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

 Done... The new article can be found here.--Rafy talk 22:58, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

Excellent.Greyshark09 (talk) 17:27, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

User:SYRIANIEN

I think we need to report him due to his childish-like behavior. Clearly he's on the wrong side by falsifying the info. Ultra-nationalist like him are trying to translate the word Soroyo into Aramean, when it's Syriac. Could you please solve this matter. Chaldean (talk) 06:17, 13 October 2011 (UTC)

Childish-like behavior? Im the one who brougt sources in the discussion, are you afraid of answering them? SYRIANIEN (talk) 08:28, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

You mean the sources that proved you being wrong? Chaldean (talk) 09:48, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

Rafy, check discussion in Syrianska article SYRIANIEN (talk) 14:30, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

Kurdish rebellions

After we resolve the issue of renaming First Kurdish Iraqi War, i would like to ask your help elaborating several events in Iraqi history, most notably the 1931 and 1943 Kurdish rebellions. I will be glad if we further conttinue our excellent cooperation such as the recent Maronites article. I also would like to put your attention on recently split article Simko Shikak revolt, which you might find related to your interests. Cheers.Greyshark09 (talk) 18:09, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

Sure. I was working on the Arabic language counterpart of the Maronites article and I found some interesting facts which I will add later.

I remember once seeing the battle infobox in Simko Shikak's article and I though a split would be the most rational step there but I was too lazy to do the dirty work. I'm not familiar with the history of Urmia after the Assyrians evacuated the Area but will take a look at the article.--Rafy talk 20:15, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, that is the same on my behalf - i have planned to split it for over a year, but only now when i got to Iranian events of 1921, i finally managed to edit the "Simko" article.Greyshark09 (talk) 20:29, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

I will soon go back to Kurdish rebellions. I plan to create 1979 Kurdish rebellion in Iran, PUK insurgency (1976-1979), 1919 Barzanji uprising, 1922 Barzanji uprising and the 1931 Ahmad Barzani uprising. Of course i also do several other things, so not my entire focus will be on Iraq and it will take some time. I will update you as i progress on this, i think it is important to overview modern Iraqi history as widely as possible.Greyshark09 (talk) 19:11, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

I will give you a hand whenever possible. I have access to most journals, so if you know of any that might contain articles which could be helpful to you I could get them for you.

I am currently trying to bring the Simele Massacre to a GA status.--Rafy talk 20:11, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

I will take a look. By the way it reminded me of the Iraqi Shia revolts 1935–1936, which i created several months ago. I found very few pieces of info on this event, which was suppressed by same Iraqi units as was the Simele massacre 3 years earlier. I wonder if it is possible to find some casualty estimations of the 1935-36 events. My guess is several hundred killed to the least.Greyshark09 (talk) 21:56, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

I can't find any good sources with exact figures. this source indicates a series of revolts that were swiftly "dispersed" so I don't this the death toll could be that high.--Rafy talk 12:25, 17 November 2011 (UTC)

Good source, i shall use it to extend the article.Greyshark09 (talk) 22:12, 17 November 2011 (UTC)

New pages on this topic i have recently created (topic - Kurdish Civil War):

May 1994 PUK–KDP clashes;

Template:Campaignbox Iraqi Kurdish Civil War

Next i will do an article on "PUK insurgency" of the 1977-78.Greyshark09 (talk) 21:48, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Honestly I have very little knowledge and interest in Kurdish/Turkish related topics. Don't hesitate though to contact me if you require any source that isn't available online.--Rafy talk 11:08, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Got it, i thought Kurdish-Iraqi conflict in north Iraq might interest you. Anyway, then take a look at the November 1963 Iraqi coup d'état, which i created earlier today. I would also like your cooperation on the Shia revolts of 35-36 - you brought a good source to add there, but i have had very little time to work on it.Greyshark09 (talk) 19:33, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Adnan Al-Aroor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnan_Al-Aroor

This is the video interview with Mr. Aroor's Commander (Retired Brigadier) when in army before being discharged and it shows the page of indictment at the end, but a bot removed it as it discourage external links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF0xOFbUi30 — Preceding unsigned comment added by ArabiSouri (talk • contribs) 20:28, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

Howitzer shelling of Sirte

Please explain to me why you think that the image should be deleted. You said Free images can be found. Photo doesn't illustrate a historical event. Both of these statements are untrue. There are no, I repeat, no free images of the battle of Sirte. All existing images come from media outlets. The second issue....how is this not a historical event? The fall of the birthplace of Moamar Gaddafi in the civil war, last battle of the war, battle ending the war, and battle during which Gaddafi was killed. Tell me how that is not of historic value? Not to mention the shelling of Sirte was one of the more notable parts of the battle, since the city has now been devasted to ruble because of it. EkoGraf (talk) 03:04, 29 October 2011 (UTC)

SUA -> WCA

Shlomo Ahono.

SUA changed their name into "World Council of Arameans (Syriacs)", in the first Aramean congress last month. They will keep their name in aramaic (Huyodo suryoyo tebeloyo). And about their official website, i think that they dont have access to the official site, if im not wrong. About the namechange, Johny Messo himself said it during an interview. Interview, play at 03:15. Thanks also for fixing the Aramaic name in the article. Shlome Suryoyono1 (talk) 14:58, 5 November 2011 (UTC)

You're welcome . No problem for the name change as long as it's official, although the Syriac name will have to change as well.--Rafy talk 17:09, 5 November 2011 (UTC)

Saadi Toma

He's Zakho FC's current coach and I think it would be great having a nice little article about him. He's controversial because he refused to leave Australia after a match when he was an assistant coach to Iraq's national team. So he's defenetaly noteworthy. I wish I could read arabic for me to write the article :( [[24]] Chaldean (talk) 20:45, 5 November 2011 (UTC)

 Done here.--Rafy talk 23:43, 14 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanks alot man! 2011 Dohuk riots - major news. Very tragic, this will lead to further exodus. Chaldean (talk) 14:43, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

It would be great if we could get it nominated at the Portal:Current events to be shown on the front page. I have no idea how the process works. Chaldean (talk) 16:29, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

I uploaded pics on commons but I dont know this new system. Chaldean (talk) 16:48, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

Ihave added it [here]. I will come later and expand the article. Commons doesn't accept photos unless you either own them or have permission from the owner to use them.--Rafy talk 16:54, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. I do own the pictures. My cousin in Dohuk took them and sent them to me. Chaldean (talk) 17:55, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

No problem I will move it to commons.--Rafy talk 18:06, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Assyrian Black March Movement

Hi. The article is now at User:Rafy/Assyrian Black March Movement. There are many sources that discuss the individual marches, but none about a movement per se. So please feel free to write articles about the bigger marches if you'd like. — Malik Shabazz ^Talk/_Stalk 20:28, 20 November 2011 (UTC)

Club logo

Hello, can you help me to correct the logo of Assyriska BK and place the right license etc.? just as you did with the logo of Syrianska FC because somebody didnt upload it correctly

This is the logo.. http://assyriskabk.com/2011/03/04/assyriska-bk-presenterar-en-ny-logga/ --SuryoyeGBG (talk) 01:09, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

Shlomo ahuno thank you so much for your time, but this logo is not the same as the original logo there are small differences why is that? however this version of the logo is also nice but at the same time its important to have the same logo everywhere and Assyriska BK dosent like it. I have spoken to them so if you can correct this logo and add the original logo it would be great --SuryoyeGBG (talk) 10:54, 27 November 2011 (UTC)

But why cant you just upload the original logo? ABK can give permission for the license etc they dont like this one because its modified. I have seen other team sites and they have their own logos, cant we do the same? --SuryoyeGBG (talk) 19:57, 27 November 2011 (UTC)

This version is also nice I like both versions, but I think ABK want the original version so Im going to tell them to send the permissions, but can you help me upload the original logo when they have send their permission? --SuryoyeGBG (talk) 20:47, 27 November 2011 (UTC)

Splitting a page

I have encountered Mandaeism page, which requires to be partially split into Mandaeans - just as we did for Maronites from Maronite Church. Can you assist on this? I have a very shallow knowledge of this religion and this ethnoreligious group.Greyshark09 (talk) 20:34, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

I have some sources on their recent history, at least in Iraq. I think a split is quite justified even if it results in a stub.--Rafy talk 18:05, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Excellent, i will begin page preparation for splitting, concentrating the info on Mandaeans into the "population" section, which we would would split into a separate article.Greyshark09 (talk) 18:09, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

The page is full with popular errors and myths. I found some good references on the subject and should start correcting what I can by next weekend.

Iraq

Hi Rafy, you just reverted my edit regarding the demographics of Iraq. I appreciate the fact that you see my edits as good faith; however, I do not see why you have reverted the edits. It is important that this information is in the article because there is a genuine debate (both academic and political) regarding the population of Iraq. Furthermore, my edit showed both sides of the spectrum. Turco85 (Talk) 14:30, 10 December 2011 (UTC)

I've replied in the talk page.--Rafy talk 15:04, 10 December 2011 (UTC)

ثالوث

Are you the same person who played a rather negative and unconstructive role with respect to articles dealing with the Christian Trinity on Arabic Wikipedia? If so, then why did you do that? AnonMoos (talk) 00:29, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

Umm I'm not sure whether what I had an unconstructive contribution but here is what I did: Arabic language doesn't make a distinction between trinity and Tritheism, so my solution was to split the Christian part of ar:ثالوث (tritheism) into its own article (trinity (Christianity)) and left a section on tritheism dealing with the traditional Christian apologetic rejection of tritheism.--Rafy talk 00:41, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

Unfortunately, the current set-up makes it seem as if the main meaning of the word ثالوث is "tritheism", which doesn't seem to be the case (that meaning is not even listed in the Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic), while Christians have been forced back into an obscure minor disambiguation page. I wasn't aware that you had an account on English Wikipedia, or knew English at all, until I saw your comment on the Talk:Proto-Semitic page today, but see User_talk:Abanima for past discussion of the issue... AnonMoos (talk) 03:24, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

I agree with you that ثالوث should be an article exclusively on the Christian dogma, as a matter of fact it was a not-that-bad-article on that subject until a user removed most of it and added big unreferenced chunks on trilogy in ancient Egyptian. Instead of initiating a conflict I created an article named Trinity (Christianity) and redirect appropriate links to it.

Now, we could make a request for a rename, especially since there is no such a thing as Egyptian trilogy, but I'm pretty sure it will turn into one of those awkward situations when admins pretend not to notice, and will probably be archived unanswered.--Rafy talk 08:31, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

Interestingly enough, the word "Hypostasis" (Arabic أقنوم) was being used to describe some Egyptian deities at arwiki.--Rafy talk 08:48, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

I wasn't fully aware of that, and you seem to have had somewhat good intentions, but the end result is quite unfortunate -- ثالوث is defined as meaning something which does not seem to be its actual main meaning in Arabic, and which certainly is not its meaning as commonly used by Arabic-speaking Christians (even though the word mainly refers to Christianity). It seems to me that by far the best thing to do would be to combine the best of the June 16th, 2010 version of ثالوث with the best of the current article تثليث (مسيحية). If people are afraid to revert fairly obvious vandalism for fear of negative reactions from Islamic fundamentalists, then it would seem that Islamic fundamentalists effectively control outcomes even in cases when they don't directly lift a single finger to type a single letter. Since you've been fairly bold in creating the current problem (e.g. setting up all the tritheism interwikis to ثالوث ), it would be good if you could also be bold in fixing the problem, unilaterally if necessary. Thanks... AnonMoos (talk) 10:56, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

The user in question is an administrator who have had major contribution to many articles so I'm assuming good faith in his edits. I will move the current content to ar:ثالوث إلهي (something like "divine trinity"), and revert to June 2010's version.--Rafy talk 12:39, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

Syriac vs. Syrian dilemma

Hello, I've been facing some difficulties regarding the usage of Syrian vs. Syriac. In one article a user argued that Syrian should be used instead of Syriac because the latest is a religious name unfit to be used to describe a group of people. Another case, a user argues that Syrian and Syriac are different concepts that shouldn't be wikilinked. Similar problems show up in categories such as Category:Syrian Christians and Category:Syrian saints, that include both historical Eastern and Western Syrians and citizens of the Syrian Arab republic. to remedy this I suggested moving modern Christians of Syria to another category with a more obvious name. Another solution would be to move all archaic Syrian Christian categories to a more distinguishable Syriac ones. Do you have any thoughts on this?--Rafy talk 10:47, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

By the way, if you have some time, could you take a look at Talk:John of Damascus. The conflict in short is that many sources describe him as a "Semite" and "Syrian or Aramean rather than Arab" but Tiamut insists that this is still too ambiguous to have a wikilink to Syriacs.--Rafy talk 10:48, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

Personally, I prefer the term Syrian Orthodox Church, because it has a history of over a millennium. Following the publication of my book on the Nestorians and Chaldeans, I am now working on a book on the history of the Syrian Orthodox and Syrian Catholic Churches. I will call them Jacobites, Syrian Orthodox and Syrian Catholics throughout the book, until we get to the politically correct 21st century. The Jacobite Church has recently officially renamed itself the Syriac Orthdox Church, so out of respect for its wishes, and for the sake of a quiet life, we should probably follow this usage; though I fervently hope that it will eventually change its mind and revert to its old, time-honoured, name. Occasionally I forget and use 'Syrian Orthodox' in my Wikipedia edits, and sometimes get round to changing Syrian to Syriac if I'm feeling politically correct, which isn't often. To tell the truth, I'm not really bothered by these arguments over nomenclature, as they generally generate more heat than light.

I'll have a look at John of Damascus.

Djwilms (talk) 01:36, 15 December 2011 (UTC)

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In standard scholarly usage, I'm not sure that the English word "Syriac" is very often used except to refer to the Syriac language and things closely connected to it... AnonMoos (talk) 14:36, 15 December 2011 (UTC)

I am aware of this, however, it seems that the name "Syriac" is gaining prominence since "Syrian" seems to be connected with the Arab state. I myself am still agnostic on which one to use.--Rafy talk 17:09, 15 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the pentagon

I actually had to look up barnstar to find out what it meant!BigEars42 (talk) 05:09, 15 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks

Hi Rafy - thanks for fixing that. I think my cat stepped on the computer - just reverted myself as I hadn't had a chance to review what had been undone. Thanks again, Kafka Liz (talk) 12:56, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

Not at all. It seems that your cat was correct about the info because Kirkuk belonged to the Babanids not to Mosul .--Rafy talk 14:26, 20 December 2011 (UTC)