Wikipedia:Requests for mediation/George II of Greece

Dispute specifics

 * Involved users
 * , filing party


 * Articles concerned in this dispute

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Cplakidas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Venera_7
 * Other steps in dispute resolution that have been attempted
 * Link here to attempts at dispute resolution.

Issues to be mediated

 * Primary issues
 * Issue 1- User Cplakidas is attempting to suppress information concerning the genealogy of the Greek royal family in pursuit of his political agenda. He admits that even though the Greek royal family is descended from numerous Byzantine dynasties this information must be suppressed because it might paint a sympathetic picture of them. I replied that Wikipedia is no place for some narrow political agenda but rather a place to disseminate information. He continues to argue for the suppression of facts that he himself admits to be true.


 * Issue 2 - User Cplakidas continues to insist that only the foreign ancestry of the Greek royal family be published and not their Greek ancestry. I pointed out that this paints a very misleading picture and is based solely on political concerns. I also pointed out the page of Juan Carlos I of Spain as a model of a good and balanced biography of a royal personage. Juan Carlos like all royals is a genetic mix of many European ethnicities, the Greek royal family is no different. The only difference is that his page is an accurate and balanced portrayal without any political ax to grind. I offered a compromise: to include both Greek and non-Greek ancestry or no ancestry at all other than the genealogical chart at the bottom of the article. User Cplakidas refused any compromise.

Given Venera 7's somewhat one-sided description, let me repeat the points in my way:
 * Issue 1: the main issue is whether the "Byzantine" ancestry of the Greek royal family, and George II in particular, is worthy of inclusion in the article. Venera7 thinks it is, because a) it has a relevance to their role as Greek monarchs (modern Greece being seen as something of an inheritor to Byzantium) and b) because George II, through his matrilineal descent, carries "Byzantine" mitochondrial DNA, unlike any other modern European monarch. I (Cplakidas) think that the fact of "Byzantine descent" is but a biological trivia and of no value to the article, because a) the wider descent is shared by almost all modern European royalty, b) it played no role in the selection of the particular royal house for the Greek throne, nor were any claims to legitimization based on the fact of this descent and c) the MT DNA claim is essentially OR.
 * Issue 2: Venera 7 has also suggested that if this information is removed, then the information on his relation to Queen Victoria and the Danish royal house be removed as well, "for fairness". I on the other hand do not accept why the relation to modern royals has to be at all tied to the main issue. The two are not mutually dependent or related, while the latter is IMO very pertinent in the context of 19th and 20th-century European dynastic interrelations.


 * Additional issues (added by other parties)
 * Additional issue 1
 * Additional issue 2

Parties' agreement to mediation

 * All parties please indicate below whether they agree to mediation of this dispute; remember to sign your post. Extended comments should be made on the talk page of this request.


 * 1) Agree. Venera 7 (talk) 23:07, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * 2) Agree. Constantine  ✍  23:39, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

Decision of the Mediation Committee

 * A member of the Mediation Committee will indicate whether this request is to be accepted or rejected. Notes concerning the request and questions to the parties may also be posed by a committee member in this section.


 * Note: Parties notified. AGK   23:14, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Accept. For the Committee, AGK   11:45, 29 September 2010 (UTC)