Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Bachtyar Ali


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was no consensus. (non-admin closure) Spirit of Eagle (talk) 04:26, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

Bachtyar Ali

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Bio for a non-notable poet that has remained the same and there don't seem to be signs of improvement. Searches at News, Books, highbeam and thefreelibrary found nothing aside from a few news links. Considering the article has both a BBC and Sunday Times link, I searched at those websites and found nothing (Sunday Times article is paywalled). The Farsi Wikipedia has this (which I don't know what it says) and the Kurdish Wikipedia looks basically the same as English. SwisterTwister  talk  16:17, 21 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Iraq-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 17:56, 23 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Poetry-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 17:56, 23 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Authors-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 17:56, 23 May 2015 (UTC)

 Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Davewild (talk) 19:59, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

 Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
 * Keep - I'm concerned with systemic bias in this case as the subject is poet and writer working in a language that would not be commonly spoken by editors on the English Language Wikipedia. The best evidence for notability is BBC article which features the Ali as the primary subject, and is a substantial writeup.  A search of the Times Literary Supplement site shows a little snippet of the full article which is paywalled.  That snippet is sufficient to surmise that this book review (which includes a copyright acknowledgement to the times.co.uk) is a copy of the one from TLS.  This review is also substantial.  Note that the BBC piece, and the review are from the same author.  I suspect that is likely due to a limited supply of writers/journalist fluent in Kurdish and English.  This Reuters article is a passing mention, but states that Ali's 1992 poetry collection "Sin and the Carnival" and magical realist novels marked a Kurdish cultural renaissance that flowered after the region broke free of Saddam's grip in 1991.  I'm not sure if this is the same person, but the movie Shewi Hisab give a writing credit to a Bachtyar Ali for  a novel.  That might mean the movie was based on his novel, but I wasn unable to track down any more information.  Give two substantial pieces of coverage, and the other items which hint at signifigance as a Kurdish writer, I suspect that Kurdish sources are likely out there somewhere to provide further support for notability. -- Whpq (talk) 02:30, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, North America1000 18:34, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Keep - don't understand this AfD. BBC article (in English) clearly identifies him as a "leading novelist" so I don't know why nom called him a "non-notable poet." Also, bringing up a Wikipedia article in another language and discounting it as "I don't know what it says" is not a good vote of confidence in an AfD. —Мандичка YO 😜 20:13, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I believe the nom was referring to a source that was a available in the Farsi Wikipedia article rather than the article itself. If you click on the link, it leads to a an article on a site "Kurd Press International News Agency".  I tried a Google translate on it (and I suspect the nom did too).  The translation comes out as word salad.  However, it does credit its sources which in the translation includes Wikipedia, so I would discount that article as a reliable source. -- Whpq (talk) 20:42, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
 * but it's in Farsi... Google Translate does Farsi. —Мандичка YO 😜 22:46, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Did you try the translation? I did.  It's a complete mess of words from which it is quite difficult to extract anything truly meaningful. -- Whpq (talk) 23:53, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Indeed I was referring to the link and not Farsi Wiki and although BBC may call him "leading", the low amount of other sources are a concern so basically it's relied on one source., are you aware that the BBC link you posted above is the same one in the article? I searched BBC and found no further results so it seems that's the only article. I fully acknowledge the possiblity of other sources but not in English but the concern is whether enough exists or is available to save the article. SwisterTwister   talk  00:36, 5 June 2015 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.