NE Syria operation

Still hope it wont happen, but there is an interesting read about it. - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/07/us-withdrawal-syria-war-crimes-erdogan-refugees-kurdish-turkey Yug (talk) 10:22, 8 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Why is this still ongoing?

The insurgency is ongoing and has its own page. The operation however is already finished a long time ago. Needbrains (talk) 12:58, 27 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Needbrains: The Turkish military has stated that the operation is still ongoing after the main combat phase was concluded, presumably because they consider the counter-insurgency phase as part of Olive Branch. Applodion (talk) 15:47, 27 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I have never heard of that. source? Needbrains (talk) 18:43, 27 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@Needbrains: This was discussed previously. See for examaple these pro-Turkish sources "Turkey's ongoing Operation Olive Branch", "Turkish army chief inspects 'Olive Branch' troops in border province of Hatay", "1,028 terrorists 'neutralized' in Turkey's Afrin operation" written after main combat had ended yet referring to the operation as "ongoing". Applodion (talk) 08:25, 28 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@Applodion: I think we can safely close this article and operation for several reasons. First, the SDF insurgency in the Afrin region seems to have ended (at the moment) with the last insurgent attack against pro-Turkish forces being recorded on 9 August 2019 [1]. After that, only one more incident took place, the mortar attack at Azaz mid-October that killed two Turkish soldiers (which seems to have been more in retaliation for Operation Peace Spring). Second, Turkey has not been making any more updates on the results of the Olive Branch operation since the end of April 2019, with the last report on the number of "terrorists" neutralized in Olive Branch being on 29 April 2019 [2]. Third, SOHR (the most authoritative source on activities in Syria) reported an Afrin insurgent attack for the last time on 5 August as well [3]. Nothing since then. Fourth, in recent months, Turkish sources have generally referred to Olive Branch in the past tense. So, my proposal is to close the operation and insurgency articles with the end date being 9 August 2019 (last recorded insurgent attack), while leaving a note that after that one more attack took place on 11 October 2019 (the Azaz mortar attack). EkoGraf (talk) 16:29, 9 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@EkoGraf: I agree that this operation should marked as over, as the Turkish military seems to no longer consider it ongoing. It should be noted, however, that the insurgency is ongoing; minor attacks still take place (i. e. [4], [5], [6], [7]). Applodion (talk) 17:51, 9 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Applodion: Agree, will think something up. EkoGraf (talk) 18:55, 9 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 2 September 2020

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: No consensus (non-admin closure) (t · c) buidhe 01:22, 4 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]


Operation Olive Branch → Turkish military operation in Afrin – WP:POVTITLE; should go with a WP:DESCRIPDIS like 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria; the current version is a propagandist title that ignores the perspective of the Kurds and their allies. It would be like renaming the Iraq War article to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Ribbet32 (talk) 01:46, 2 September 2020 (UTC)—Relisting. —usernamekiran (talk) 06:50, 10 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This is factually wrong. The ongoing occupation is still regarded as "Operation Olive Branch" by the Turkish military. (See the sources mentioned in the "Why is this still ongoing?" section above) Applodion (talk) 09:05, 3 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Requested move 2 November 2021

Operation Olive Branch → 2018 Turkish offensive into north-western Syria – Current title violates WP:POVTITLE as it is a purely Turkish point of view on the offensives. Nor does Turkey's odd choices of operation names properly describe or title the events for readers to grasp what is happening. With the developments of a potential future offensive again, the convoluted operation names potentially hides away the broader occupation. So I propose a consistent naming structure for the current Turkish occupation and offensives/invasions that have taken place to better fulfil WP:CRITERIA:

Turkish occupation of northern Syria
Operation Euphrates Shield > ---> 2016 Turkish offensive into north-western Syria
Operation Olive Branch ---> 2018 Turkish offensive into north-western Syria
2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria

Note: Turkey's president in 2019 threatened to flood Europe with refugees if European leaders/nations continued to call Turkey's offensives as an invasion hence some sources trying to be politically correct may be used as supposed reference to the current title, but this threat should be factored in to avoid the bias. "Erdogan threatens to flood Europe with 3.6 million refugees if EU calls Turkish operation in Syria an 'invasion'". 10 October 2019. TataofTata (talk) 18:22, 2 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Move to Afrin offensive or 2018 Afrin offensive instead as it is both sufficiently descriptive and is the most commonly used name for the operation. The scope of this article and the existence of a separate Afrin offensive (January–March 2018) article present a problem since Operation Olive Branch is the name for the January–March 2018 Afrin offensive. Operation Olive Branch ended with the capture of Afrin; the following insurgency was not part of the named operation. Lightspecs (talk) 23:21, 4 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
You're quite right, however my objective was to keep the structure in line with Turkey's other offensives for a better encyclopedia. What about 2018 Turkish Afrin offensive? --TataofTata (talk) 00:26, 5 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Beshogur (talk) 09:26, 5 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Most of these results where "Operation Olive Branch" is the main term come from Turkish sources. "Afrin offensive" is the most common term used in international media, with "Olive Branch" being mentioned as Turkey's name in quotes. Lightspecs (talk) 00:15, 6 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Lightspecs: I could show others without any quotations mark: BBC, Reuters, AJ. Beshogur (talk) 11:09, 6 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
The al-Jazeera article referred to "Turkey's operation in Syria's Afrin" and the "Afrin offensive" before mentioning Operation Olive Branch (and adding "so-called" before it).
In most Reuters articles on the operation, "Afrin offensive" is used in both the title and within the body without any qualifiers, while references to "Operation Olive Branch" usually mention that it's Turkey's name, often with quotes around it. Likewise for BBC (1, 2). Lightspecs (talk) 11:29, 6 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Lightspecs: I'm not arguing the other names such as "Afrin offensive/operation", in Turkish there are alternate names such as "Afrin harekatı" or "Afrin operasyonu". But it's totally misleading. Is it about Afrin area(?), the town(?). The search results are here, "Afrin offensive" gives me 16,400 results. So we should stick on common name. Also [12] 20 BBC mentions against [13] 8; same goes for Reuters. If you look carefully, most of those are not in quotes, and we can see that it's used as a proper name. Beshogur (talk) 12:09, 6 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
We do not use "Operation Iraqi Freedom" for Iraq War or 2003 invasion of Iraq do we, so it clearly violates WP:POVTITLE on that basis. The operation name of the offensive is certainly a POV of the Turkish side. It's also going to be highlighted in articles to quote what turkey calls its offensive so these kind of skewed results is certainty a manipulative argument. I found so many out of context and Turkish sources in his results, nearly every Turkish media outlet is there and they regularly release articles on these topics so take with a grain of salt. --TataofTata (talk) 14:54, 5 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Comment Wikipedia has multiple articles called "Operation something", e.g. Operation Market Garden, Operation Entebbe, Operation Mincemeat etc. These Operation names represent one side's perspective, yet I see no objections to them, so I don't think there's any general injunction against the form "Operation something". Articles using that name focus on the specific military operations concerned rather than broader issues, and that distinction may be something to think about here. We should be guided by what reliable sources say, as per WP:COMMONNAME -- and we do there need to take into account what sources from different perspectives say. Bondegezou (talk) 15:42, 5 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
"Operation Iraqi Freedom" is not used because "Iraq War" and "2003 invasion" have become more commonly used, especially in academia (among other reasons, the war and invasion cannot be named "Operation Iraqi Freedom" because each contingent involved in the coalition used its own "Operation X" name such as Operation Telic). Again, contrast this to "Operation Olive Branch" which even pro-SDF sources use. Applodion (talk) 15:44, 5 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Bondegezou: Those are hardly similar and actually backs me up. A hostage rescue operation is not comparable, nor is a deception operation during war time.. These are respectfully operations, same as other second world war operations that took place. Look at Saar Offensive or 1939–1940 Winter Offensive for example.
I will not add any further as I am just trying to clear up misunderstandings, but there's a few things to factor here. "Operation Olive Branch" is a non-neutral title even if they do not admit. Secondly there is no solid grounds to claim it's more common, I'm sure the sources Beshogur believes I do not take seriously while alternatively sources for example from the US White House statement which stated "...Government of Turkey to conduct a military offensive into northeast Syria.." he chooses to ignore (these are actual reliable sources). "even pro-SDF sources use" is just speculating, same as claiming turkish occupied areas are self-governed or military "intervention" is a better term than offensive. Objectively to be ambiguous IMO.
WP:CRITERIA - "In that case, editors choose the best title by consensus based on the considerations that this page explains...Recognizability, Naturalness, Precision, Concision, Consistency." Simply for a better encyclopedia on the whole topic. --TataofTata (talk) 17:35, 5 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
So in wikipedia, we should move everything accordingly to the white house? Also the term operation is not a pov title. See reactions sections, almost every country calls it "operation". If you're against the name "Olive Branch". That's something else. Beshogur (talk) 17:50, 5 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Google Scholar does not count what sources calls the offensive by what title or such, it simply counts the hits it finds. That means every source referring to an invasion, offensive, military attack, etc would end up quoting Turkey's codename of the offensive at least once and as you admit the bulk of the results are coming from Turkey, a place that threatened the EU with refugees if they called it an invasion and also locks up academics for the same reasons. It's fair to say they are not so reliable, especially when looking at it and finding stuff like: "Ankara initiated the Operation Olive Branch together with the Free Syrian Army against ISIS and PKK/YPG in Afrin of Syria". Or finding a play by Ewan MacColl called "Operation Olive Branch" in 1947.
Also I suggest if you're going to state the obvious such as "it's just a codename" you should be specific and state that it's devised by Turkey so as to not be presenting incomplete or half-truths. That is where a point of view originates from, it's a codename that Turkey named its offensive that ultimately resulted in taking over Afrin we should be cautious in calling an invasion/offensive by its codename for obvious reasons. Vague google results are not WP:COMMONNAME, major news outlets are:
  • Associated Press, Turkey says no turning back from offensive in Syria - [14]
  • BBC, Syria offensive: Turkish troops 'capture villages' in Afrin - BBC News - [15]
  • The Guardian, Turkey primed to start offensive against US-backed Kurds in Syria | Turkey | The Guardian - [16]
  • CNN, Tillerson 'concerned' at Turkey's Syria offensive - CNN - [17]
--TataofTata (talk) 17:22, 9 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I just wanted to note that 1) the proposer replying to each and every argument in the discussion with multiple paragraphs is hardly constructive 2) the fact that you followed my edits after I opposed your RM and reverted me on Kars Province, an article which you had never previously edited, is unacceptable, bordering wikihounding. Please don't do that again, not to me, not to any other participants in this discussion. --GGT (talk) 22:41, 9 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@GGT: 1) I've not been replying to everything, that's not untrue. This is a somewhat complex topic and a clarification to your half-true statement which everyone has a right to hear out and I'm in no way being unconstructive when it was to dismiss my point in a misguided way. If what you said was bulletproof I wouldn't have much to say and I'd probably change my opinion too, especially if it's more than just another attempt at using vague google results.
2) I reverted you on Kars Province because you removed Kurdish and Armenian versions of the province name. I follow many Kurdish and Armenian towns and areas so it in my watch list. I think you're making it out to be something that it's clearly not. Please just stay on topic and do not try and focus on the user here. I also suggest not to go around doing that. --TataofTata (talk) 15:08, 10 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I do not see a consensus emerging to support changing the article name. TataofTata, have you considered adding some material to the article about the language used and, for example, stuff like: "Erdogan threatens to flood Europe with 3.6 million refugees if EU calls Turkish operation in Syria an 'invasion'". 10 October 2019.? That would be a way of acknowledging these issues. Bondegezou (talk) 14:02, 10 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I simply wanted to improve the structure of all these offensives in a more readable and common known format, not by Turkey's codename. It may be worth notifying other users who previously voted in the last vote, as there are already two which have been involved already here? As for mentioning what Erdogan said, yes that would be good. There is also already the section on 'Restrictions of free expression and arrests in Turkey'. --TataofTata (talk) 15:10, 10 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
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