The Greek and Turkish Wikipedians Cooperation Board serves to express some of the debates concerning Greek and Turkish related articles on Wikipedia. These debates may concern anything from edible consumer products to important political events, in a more efficient manner than would be possible in a single, specific article, especially regarding debates and arguments that transcend the reach of a specific article. Such issues can include, but are not exclusive to, naming disputes, interpretation of historical sources that have an effect on a number of articles and inclusion of the Turkish/Greek names of towns, cities, islands that have been historically connected to a particular party, but since, for myriad reasons, are in the jurisdiction of either Greece and Turkey as they exist today. Issues concerning Cyprus can also fall under the scope of this Board. As such, this Board serves to promote the creation, progress and completion of certain "projects" to resolve such issues, and possibly help develop Wiki guidelines, particularly for naming disputes.
This Board also serves as a notification board for issues that are of importance to specific articles. However, please don't use this notification board to invite people to engage in edit and revert-wars nor to engage them in looping discussions that primarily have nothing to do with the articles in question. It should be just a "shout-out" to get concerned Wikipedians to take a look with good-faith at certain articles to see what they can do to help them achieve a better encyclopedic-standing.
Another important aim of this Board is to promote projects that aim to highlight and give greater coverage to more positive aspects of Greco-Turkish relations. Wikipedia articles include many "negative", though true, aspects of this relation; however this Board actively promotes the inclusion of many events, persons, festivals and similar topics that have contributed to improved relations between Greek and Turkish people in general, today and in the past. Conforming with Wikipedia's philosophy, this Board doesn't, in any way, discourage the creation, inclusion or expansion of any information in Wikipedia, even though they might be considered as being "negative" by some. It simply aims to increase the coverage of positive aspects of Greco-Turkish relations.
Other areas that can fall within the grasp of this Board include certain "clean-ups" of certain articles to take off their inflammatory "edge", without betraying the essence of information contained in the articles.
If you feel that there is a particular "pressure" going on in a particular article by certain POVs or "nationalistic" edits, please sound off here to get both Greek and Turkish users dedicated to cooperation and dialogue involved.
Eventually, certain projects to get a number of Greek-Turkish articles to Featured Article can be envisaged as well.
Please feel free to add and mention articles that need to be worked on and that might need the joint contribution of both Greek and Turkish Wikipedians. Use the Notification Board page to sound off and Current Tasks and Projects page to see which pages might need the involvement of this Board.
Every wikipedian subscribing to the board is expected to understand that facts in controversial disputes are usually a priori disputed in themselves. Sources are often perceived as being biased and the interpretation of events is expected to be largely different. We intend on presenting all the aspects and interpretations of facts in a neutral way, allowing readers decide for themselves. There are a number of principles that wikipedians are expected to subscribe to in order to join this effort.
Behavior
The most important is probably Assume Good Faith. Every wikipedian who wants to participate on this board is expected to assume that other wikipedians (not necessarily of this board) are acting in good faith, until otherwise proven.
No personal attacks. No ad hominem. We have had enough incivility and personal attacks by seemingly biased editors and we cannot tolerate personal attacks on this board. That is to say, every wikipedian who wants to participate is expected to remain civil and cool in disputes.
Editing
The Neutral Point of View principle is the means, if not the end, of every wikipedian interested in being a part of this board.
All claims, either in talks or in articles, have to be cited by independent, verifiable, and reliable sources in due weight. It seems that the lack of academic sources and the lack of judgement in the preminence that must be given to such sources, are the main reasons for the usual disputes.
There is also a template that can be used for marking the talk pages of concerned articles. This can be added by inserting "{{GR-TR}}" to the page code, preferably near the top.
