Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/2009-10-21/Vilayet of Kharpert

Where is the dispute?
The problem is in Vilayet of Kharpert and other pages created by the same user. See the discussion page there for comments as well as User_talk:Ordtoy.

Who is involved?
Just a list of the users involved. For example:


 * User:Ordtoy
 * User:Hovik95

What is the dispute?
The article about the Vilayet of Kharpert suffers from a lack of focus. It pertains to the Ottoman vilayet (province) centred on Harput, but the Armenian name is used in the name of the article. The term vilayet is an Ottoman administrative one employed for Harput from the 1860s until the end of the Empire after WWI, so using an ancient Armenian name (Kharpert) for an Ottoman province is incorrect. The present article is a direct translation from armeniapedia.com, hence the use of the Armenian name, but the translator is mistaken in insisting that this was the name of the vilayet. More detail is available on the Discussion page.

What would you like to change about this?
I propose moving the page to Vilâyet of Mamûretü'l-Âzîz, which was the official Ottoman name for the province. In addition, inside the article, there are numerous non-standard names used (say Kapan-madan) rather than either the familiar modern ones (say Ergani) or their Ottoman ones (Ergani Madeni). It is absolutely reasonable to provide the historical Armenian name of this area but it should not be used to talk about an Ottoman vilayet.

How do you think we can help?
I have explained the above to the author of the article and his response is on the talk page User_talk:Ordtoy. The request for comment received on the Vilayet of Kharpert page received no attention, so this is the next step. Also note that there are more issues with the other pages created in a similar manner: Vilayet of Sebastia, for example.