Talk:Syria

Speaker Title

I see no rationale to put the entire, state-official title in the infobox; I believe that "Speaker" is all that should be there because in most articles, such as Iraq and the United States do not list the entire official name in the infobox. ^NeoSyria\Freedoxm (talk · contribs) 17:39, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

@Caltine @HurricaneEdgar - feel free to discuss. ^NeoSyria\Freedoxm (talk · contribs) 17:41, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

I think I have no problem with the current version. We don't need the longer title because readers already understand the context, and the wikilink allows them to see the full title. HurricaneEdgar 08:42, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

I have seen instances where the full title of the speaker role is used on some articles (e.g. Hungary), so I'm mostly using those articles as a reference. Caltine (talk) 12:30, 21 July 2026 (UTC)

Kurdish on the Infobox, 5 months later

There's still ambiguity on which option should be used (A or D; now 1 or 2 respectively). Therefore, I'm restarting a conventional discussion before moving on to a second RfC if necessary, per the closer's statement: Having inspected all comments and !votes, including non-XC and collapsed content, and set aside non-XC contributions per WP:ECR, I find that there is consensus against B and C. There is no consensus in re A and D; the !vote-count is 6-5, but the D arguments are stronger. I recommend a more focused RfC between A and D wherein non-XC editor contributions are struck to better abide by WP:ECR. (See the first discussion and the first RfC, which, I forgot to initiate a second one up until now. ^NeoSyria\Freedoxm (talk · contribs) 03:53, 4 August 2026 (UTC)

• 
  1, formerly option A (status quo until January 2026)
• 
  2, formerly option D (status quo since March 2026)

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^NeoSyria\Freedoxm (talk · contribs) 03:53, 4 August 2026 (UTC)

Everyone from the previous discussions (excluding TAI accounts), which are @HurricaneEdgar, @Indiana3877, @Prosnu, @Gorgonopsi, @Quetstar, @FossilDS, @SyrianConan, @Chekh77, @JGHFunRun, @Barnards.tar.gz, @Moxy, @MarketFruit, @MazurTutejszy, @Chidgk1, @Caltine, @Atsuner, @Mtzne, @TheJoyfulTentmaker, @Kgb2122, @ThecentreCZ, @Vuzorg, @Aintabli, @Mathglot, @TeddyRoosevelt1912, feel free to discuss. ^NeoSyria\Freedoxm (talk · contribs) 04:09, 4 August 2026 (UTC)

I'm fine with the status quo. MazurTutejszy (talk) 17:32, 4 August 2026 (UTC)

I agree with status quo (Option 2). As Wikipedians we are neither obliged to nor allowed to "reinforce anything" per WP:NPOV. The status of Kurdish is not comparable to that in Iraq. This RfC has started too early as there is nothing in the news as far as I can see that suggests this should be reconsidered. Option A was not the "status quo till January". It was the case for only a few days in January, and claiming it was the status quo "until January" depicts it as if option A was the long-time version of the infobox. Aintabli (talk) 19:08, 4 August 2026 (UTC)

Status quo. Quetstar (talk) 22:25, 4 August 2026 (UTC)

I personally would go for the first option, as it further reinforces Kurdish as a recognized language in Syria; though, if in the case of maintaining consistency such as in articles like Iraq, I'd go with retaining the second option. Caltine (talk) 05:02, 4 August 2026 (UTC)

Which part of those images am I supposed to be comparing for differences? In the languages part, I don't see any difference. Here is roughly what I see in those images:

RFC - A.png
Official languages	Arabic
Recognized national languages	Kurdish

RFC - D.png
Official languages	Arabic
Recognized national languages	Kurdish

That is, they are the same. Am I missing something? Mathglot (talk) 19:07, 4 August 2026 (UTC)

اَلْجُمْهُورِيَّةُ ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْسُوْرِيَّة (Arabic) al-Jumhūriyyah al-ʿArabiyyah as-Sūriyyah Komara Erebî ya Sûriyê (Kurdish) RFC - A.png

اَلْجُمْهُورِيَّةُ ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْسُوْرِيَّة (Arabic) al-Jumhūriyyah al-ʿArabiyyah as-Sūriyyah RFC - D.png

The top of the infobox on both images are different, check again. ^NeoSyria\Freedoxm (talk · contribs) 19:08, 4 August 2026 (UTC)

If you would have written a clear question at the top, it would be easier for responders to comment, rather than have to compare two enormous images pixel by pixel. I came here in good faith, and since you labeled this discussion Kurdish on the Infobox, that is the part of the Infobox images I thought you wanted comment on. I have spent enough time on this already, so I am not going to check again, but perhaps the time I appear to have wasted on a wild goose chase will help others avoid falling into the same trap, and the discussion can benefit from their responses going forward. Mathglot (talk) 19:21, 4 August 2026 (UTC)

Voting for option 1. Following two different ways of writing the country's name in Arabic (with Arabic and Latin scripts) adding a third in Kurdish makes sense: Komara Erebî ya Sûriyê is informative and should be in the infobox. This has nothing to do with reinforcing something, but is about giving due weight to a meaningful detail given that it is an officially recognized language. TheJoyfulTentmaker (talk) 20:16, 4 August 2026 (UTC)

Per previous discussion, option A is actually the WP:UNDUE option, because it's not an official language unlike Arabic. It is instead a "recognized national language". In Iraq, it is an official language and is reflected on the infobox with equal weight as Arabic. In Syria, Arabic clearly is the single official language, so giving equal weight to another language goes against WP:DUE and WP:RS. Aintabli (talk) 23:05, 4 August 2026 (UTC)

By this reasoning, we should remove the Romanized text "al-Jumhūriyyah al-ʿArabiyyah as-Sūriyyah", because the Latin script is not the official script to write Arabic in Syria. Can we say it is WP:UNDUE because it the unofficial script get the same weight as the official script? Obviously not. What goes into the infobox, in my opinion, depends on two things: * is the information accurate enough? * is the information interesting enough? I think how say the country's name in Kurdish is definitely an interesting detail for sufficient number of Wikipedia readers, given that it is the second most spoken language there and even its president started to make social media posts in Kurdish now. TheJoyfulTentmaker (talk) 00:01, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

This is the English Wikipedia, and the English language is written in the Latin script, and to match that and ease readability, other scripts are transliterated into the Latin script. For example, in Arabic or Armenian Wikipedia, foreign terms and names in Latin also get transliterated to their respective scripts. Per your interpretation of WP:UNDUE, this whole site would barely exist.

Infobox is meant to be a summary of the article per MOS:INFOBOX. It is not a visual element to highlight info that editors find accurate and interesting. Please note that both options include the fact that Kurdish is a recognized national language. The only differing detail is including the name of the country in Kurdish in bold, in other words giving both languages equal weight. And that is what makes it undue attention, because Kurdish is not an official language on par with Arabic. The fact that a politician posts using another language on social media is irrelevant, as there are countless instances of that all around the world. Aintabli (talk) 00:53, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

• Comment - this discussion is going nowhere, so I'll be starting an RfC so that consensus can be determined once and for all. ^NeoSyria\Freedoxm (talk · contribs) 01:03, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

  This discussion has not been open even 24 hours yet. Imho, opening an Rfc now would likely be a violation of WP:RFCBEFORE. Please allow the discussion to continue, and please solicit feedback from interested editors at related WP:WikiProjects or noticeboards first. Mathglot (talk) 01:12, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

  I've delayed my planned RfC for the time being. However, I'm not ruling it out anytime soon. ^NeoSyria\Freedoxm (talk · contribs) 01:23, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 4 August 2026

change the section of culture in the media category where it says that most media is state owned by the military intelligence directorate to the state of who owns the media currently since the directorate has been dissolved under the fall of the Assad family ~2026-42997-89 (talk) 07:43, 4 August 2026 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want made. Please detail the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Mathglot (talk) 19:12, 4 August 2026 (UTC)

Fixed Hi there! I understood your request well enough, and I wrote a paragraph about the new situation both here and in Media in Syria. Lova Falk (talk) 08:22, 5 August 2026 (UTC)

RFC: Kurdish on the Infobox (second round)

I'm starting a second RfC on this issue because the second discussion is going chaotic and isn't solving anything; let alone that it has not received a reply since five days ago. This RfC is a partial continuation of the first RfC that received no consensus between options A and D (now 1 and 2 respectively) that was conducted between 18 January and 18 March 2026.

Which one should be implemented?

Option 1 - Kurdish is displayed on both the top and the recognized national languages section of the infobox
Option 2 - Kurdish is displayed on the recognized national languages section of the infobox, but is not displayed on the top of the infobox.

Syrian Arab Republic اَلْجُمْهُورِيَّةُ ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْسُوْرِيَّة (Arabic) al-Jumhūriyyah al-ʿArabiyyah as-Sūriyyah Komara Erebî ya Sûriyê (Kurdish) Option 1

Syrian Arab Republic اَلْجُمْهُورِيَّةُ ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْسُوْرِيَّة (Arabic) al-Jumhūriyyah al-ʿArabiyyah as-Sūriyyah Option 2

FYI, see the most previous relevant discussion for more information. Anyone from the previous discussions are welcome to participate. ^NeoSyria\Freedoxm (talk · contribs) 13:40, 10 August 2026 (UTC)

Edit warring

Whoever is edit warring, please be careful. I think you undid some of my cite fixes, which take a bit of time to do correctly to ensure things are properly cited. ← Metallurgist (talk) 06:17, 11 August 2026 (UTC)