Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/2010-08-15/List of the busiest airports in Europe

Where is the dispute?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_Europe

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


 * Sir_Tanx
 * Snowball_us
 * Several unregistered IPs

What is the dispute?
The disputes focuses around the criterion of inclusion into the list of busiest European airports.

What would you like to change about this?
The participants of the discussion, particularly on part of the unregistered users, are poor at presenting counter-argumentation and resort only to edit reversion. The criterion of inclusion has traditionally been based on the geographical extent of Europe, however, a range of unregistered users (the same person?) and Snowball_us are including airports which are geographically speaking non-European. They have yet to introduce a clear common denominator for which airports should be included.

How do you think we can help?
I don't know, but a third party might be able to see things from a different perspective.

Mediator notes
I am happy to mediate this. Do the parties accept me as a mediator? Hipocrite (talk) 15:35, 27 September 2010 (UTC)


 * I accept your offer to act as a mediator. Snowball_us 16:05, 28 September 2010 (CDT)

Why should all the Turkish Airports be included in the list?
The argument over the inclusion of Turkish Airports began after the partial implementation of airport removals from the list based on the geographical definition of Europe. If this list were to only include the airports within geographical Europe, it would be wise if that definition is moved onto the article page to prevent further confusion. Then, the airports in the following regions from the list would need to be removed in order to be fair:
 * - Cyprus
 * - Greek Islands in the Aegean Sea that are geographically linked to Anatolia (i.e. Rhodes)
 * - North African territories of Spain (i.e. Canary Islands)
 * - North African territories of Portugal (i.e Medeira)

Besides all Turkish airports except for Istanbul Ataturk Airport located on the European side of Istanbul, these are the places I can think of at the moment that needs to be removed if a pure geographical definition is to be used for this article. However, I sincerely do not support the idea of dividing a country into chunks for this matter as people will keep adding these airports back onto the list as they are already part of the European Union. This will make the list very difficult to maintain.

One of the criteria to join the European Union is to be a European state. For that matter, Morocco's application was rejected whereas Turkey's (a country with soil in both Europe and Asia) application was accepted, which is in line with Turkey's acceptance as a European state for hundreds of years. Similarly, Cyprus was allowed to be a European Union member purely on the fact that the island of Cyprus is geographically linked to Anatolia, which is considered to be an extension of Europe, since Anatolia (or Asia Minor) is part of Turkey. If Turkey had no territory in Europe, Cyprus could not become a European Union member due to the criterion I mentioned above. Then, for the same reason, entire Turkish territory is considered European soil.

Another compelling reason to keep all Turkish airports in this list is that these airports are listed under the European Division of Airports Council International (ACI). Furthermore, the entire Turkish airspace is overseen by EUROCONTROL, a European organization that links European air traffic control towers to one another.

In the name of fairness, I believe all Turkish airports should stay on this list for the reasons I have mentioned above. In fact, most articles I see on Wikipedia include Turkey both in Asia and Europe, which I feel is correct; therefore, I think all Turkish airports should appear under both the European and the Asian airports lists. If a new criterion needs to be defined for this article, I believe it should be in line with today's aviation organizations; however, I also believe that the current criterion for this article (membership to the Council of Europe) is a fair one since this organization is open to all European states. Partial inclusion of transcontinental countries with a purely geographical definition of Europe will only cause confusion, and as I mentioned earlier, it will be very difficult to maintain a consistent article. Snowball_us September 28, 2010, 17:00 (CDT)


 * Thanks for that - while a bit lenghty, it's pretty clear. I note the other party has not edited since late August. Is there still a dispute to mediate? Hipocrite (talk) 14:16, 29 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Sir Tanx submitted his request for mediation on August 15, 2010 and did not commit any more revisions since then. I'm not sure if he is still insterested in debating over this article; however, I will be more than happy to discuss the issue with him if he wants to do so. We can wait for Sir Tanx to respond for a while. Otherwise, I suppose the dispute is settled for the time being. Snowball_us September 29, 2010, 20:08 (CDT)


 * Sir Tanx appears to have left wikipedia. If he returns and wants to reengage, feel free to notify me. I am marking this case as closed. Hipocrite (talk) 14:03, 4 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your help. Snowball_us October 5, 2010, 02:44 (CDT)