Nationalistic Editing, Extremists on Wikipedia

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Nationalistic Editing on Wikipedia is very much part of Wikipedia. Wikipedia itself has over the years become a gathering place for individuals with extreme views when it comes to topics dealing with Nationalism. There is no other place this is more visible than in the Croatian articles on Wikipedia. This article deals with the Croatian section of Wikipedia.

For many, Wikipedia has become the first port of call for information about anything and everything. With this in mind a crafty group of clever individuals (or organisations) can very easily manipulate historic information for their own biased-extremists Nationalistic agendas.

Quote by Ocham-London, United Kingdom:

 
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These differences about history also reflect bitter modern disputes, often violent, about nationhood and national identity, about the rights and wrongs and the justice of a cause, about genocide and war. Such bitter disagreements are brought onto Wikipedia, where editors will fight on the internet over the same issues that have caused division in real life. The talk pages of these articles can often resemble a battleground. Often an editor or a group of editors learn to work the system in their favour to promote their own point of view, so that the article will become a stated Wiki fact, and itself a piece of history. This brings up all sorts of moral and ethical issues.
 

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Judging by many of edits on the Croatia related articles, they are pretty much written from a dated point of view of the former Communist Yugoslavia. Communist Yugoslav nationalistic history is all but forgotten in the West. It was the regimes policy to create a uniform state rather than a collective of peoples. The policy was one of the great historic failures of recent times. In essence Yugoslavia was a contradiction, on one hand it had the slogan Brotherhood and Unity [1][2] and on the other hand it executed Stalinist policies from the 1940s to the 1960s. Other Nationalistic conflicts within Wikipedia that are related to the Croatian region are based on ethnicity (i.e. Croatian, Serbian, Albania and Italian).


Wikipedia and Bias editing Concerning the Dalmatian region (& other Croatian articles too)

Croatia (Hrvatska)

It appears that Wikipedia has problems interpreting the multicultural and multiethnic history of the Dalmatian region. There is a strong culture of editing bias that seems to prevail. This results in articles that reflect a point of view rather being encyclopaedic.

As events are unfolding, the bias tips mainly towards the propaganda of the former Communist Yugoslavia (13/12/2012). The articles reflect Nationalistic views of a Totalitarian Communist system.

Fausto Veranzio & Francesco Patrizi

The case of Fausto Veranzio (or Faust Vrančić) and Francesco Patrizi, the Venetian philosopher, is an illustration of the nationalistic warfare that is part of Wikipedia and the inaccuracy, falsehood and bias that follows as a result.

Quote by Ocham-London, United Kingdom:

 
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The problem becomes particularly acute in a place like Wikipedia, where the only intellectual interest - that is to say, no intellectual interest at all - lies simply in a nationalistic dispute, in this case between Italians and Croatians.
 

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Venetian Albania

Another article to mention is Venetian Albania [3] (it is also related to the Republic of Venice.) Here is an Editor's response to some very simple basic historic facts concerning the Republic of Venice and Venetian Albania:

 
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This is without even going into the controversial nature of the very biased and unbalanced depiction of history... By DIREKTOR 22 February 2011 [4]
 

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This is typical standard Wikipedian rhetoric spin. The language can be also interpreted as a facade for other editors who are not educated in the topic at hand. Also the statement is there to create a problem where in fact there isn't an issue here at all other than that of Nationalistic extremism.

Wikipedian Editor DIREKTOR tried to remove Josip Broz Tito from Wikipedia's article "List of dictators" /Link, and is trying to create the falsehood that a mass murdering executioner was a Benevolent dictator (his speciality is totalitarian communist spin).

  • A Wikipedian Editor's observation on Yugoslav Nationalistic editing and Wikipedia Admin:
 
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It is painful that two simple edits (actually, 1 edit in 2 articles) required 2 days, 1 report and hundreds of sentences of discussion when they are a clear disruption by one editor who is perfectly aware of what he is doing. I´m sorry to say it Fainites, but your still "I think" make me think that as an admin involved in this, you are being too nice and soft towards that editor, and you should have been much more effective in deciding something as simple as this because this way, a disruptive editor that constantly edit-wars made fun of all of us for 2 days and made a number of dedicated editors loose a lot of time completely unnecessarily. By FkpCascais on the 1 March 2011 [5]
 

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Republic of Ragusa. Today part of modern Croatia.

House of Bona

Dubrovnik once the capital of the Republic of Ragusa now within todays modern Croatia. The Republic in the past was a hub of multi-ethnic communities. [6][7][8][9]

The best example of this is the article House of Bona.[10][11] The House of Bona was a noble family from the former state of the Republic of Ragusa (with its famous city called Dubrovnik), which was part of the historic region of Dalmatia. [12]

According to some Wikipedia Editors, it was the House of Bunić. The Bunic name is a Slavic translation and is hardly used even in today’s Croatia. There was an edited war over the whole matter and eventually with the strength of references it was changed.

After World War Two the Slavicisation of the of Dalmatia (today part of Croatia) was continued as government policy under the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. All cities, towns, villages, family and peoples surnames that are not of Slavic origin were being translated.[13] The policy was firstly implemented on a large scale with the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1918.[14]

Dalmatia is a region of Europe with a very multicultural and multiethnic history. The population of that region is predominately Croatian but there is a strong Latin historic tradition dating back to Roman times. The forceful translation of their cultural and even at times rewriting of history is what could be termed cultural genocide. Wikipedia has a current group of editors who participating in that process.

Note: Italian and Latin languages were used extensively in Dalmatia. [15] The region also had a significant Dalmatian Italian ethnic population.[16]

Family Member Statement on Wikipedia

 
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As a Croatian member of the de Bona family, I would like to remind everybody of the following:

The Bona name already appears in a document dated from the 10th century - this document can be seen in Dubrovnik. All Croatian identity documents show de BONA (even during Yugoslavia) All family records show the name BONA, never Bunic Tombstones show Bona, never Bunic. Bunic predominantly appears in books written by Yugoslav authors or those using "Yugoslav" sources. Paintings in the Dubrovnik Museum show the name "de Bona" on all the paintings - description tags usually say Bunic and now also Bona in most cases (since Croatia's independence -- under Yugoslavia, nearly exclusively Bunic).

In Dubrovnik the family is known as Bona, not Bunic. The aristocracy wanted to distinguish themselves from the rest of the population and did not Slavicize their names (except two families of Slavic origin)...in some cases some people who wrote in Croatian or a form of it also used a Slavic version of the name...Additional proof needed for the Bona name. So far none seen. In MHO, this page should be known as House of Bona (aka Bunic) and all the names in the Slavic version should appear in parentheses next to the Bona name. As far as I know, there are no historical records with these Slavic names. All family records, always show the name Bona even when the rest of the text is written in Croatian.

A small clique is controlling all the info that goes into the Croatian pages. This is a fact. They are very determined that only info they accept can enter in Wikipedia. Otherwise, they do everything to make sure it's deleted -- often with no explanation --. If they don't like a user they will do everything to ban him.

In MHO, Bunic is only used to say it's "Croatian" versus "Italian"... I don't recognise myself in the Bunic name. It doesn't mean anything to me...but Croatian people, who don't know anything about the family, are telling everybody it's the name...with no proof to back it up. You make up your mind what the name of the House is..."

by Debona.michel 28 January 2010
 

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Dalmatia (the dark purple) within todays modern Croatia

Update: Wikipedian Editor DIREKTOR does his Nationalistic Extremism editing by changing the article's title to House of Bunić (7/11/201). Editor Grifter72 changes House of Bunić to House of Bona (11/11/2011).

Wikipedia's Dalmatian Italians Article and biased edits

He is other example of bias editing on Wikipedia the free encyclopaedia which could be viewed as cultural genocide. The historic information below was deleted because it did not reflect the dated point of view of the former Communist Yugoslavia. According to Wikipedia in the Dalmatian Italians article (21/11/2010), history of the region started in 997 A.D. We somehow lost the history of the Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire. See below:

 
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Characteristics

After the 1840s the ethnic group suffered from an apparently constant trend of decreasing presence and now numbers only around 1,000 people. Throughout history, however, this group (though small in numbers in the last centuries) exerted a disproportionally significant influence on the region.

They are currently represented in Croatia and Montenegro by the Italian National Community (Italian: Comunita Nazionale Italiana) (CNI). The Italo-Croatian minorities treaty recognises the Italian Union (Unione Italiana) as the political party officially representing the CNI in Croatia. The number of Dalmatian Italians in Croatia has fallen to 300, and the Italian Union concentrates on the Istrian region and the city of Rijeka (Fiume), which are home to the vast majority of the Italian minority in Croatia (numbering around 30,000 citizens).

In Dalmatia the most important centers of the CNI are in Split (Spalato), Zadar (Zara), and Kotor (Cattaro). They have their own newspapers

History

Roman Dalmatia and the Middle ages

Roman Dalmatia was fully latinized by 476 AD when the Western Roman Empire disappeared, according to scholar Theodor Mommsen in his book "The Provinces of the Roman Empire".

During the Barbarian Invasions Avars allied with certain Slavic tribes, invaded and plundered Byzantine Illyria. This eventually led to the settlement of different Slavic tribes in the Balkans. The original Roman population endured within the coastal cities and in the inhospitable Dinaric Alps (the latter were later known as "Morlachs" or Vlachs).

The Dalmatian cities retained their Romanic culture and language in cities such as Jadera (Zadar, Zara), Spalatum (Split, Spalato) and Ragusa (Dubrovnik). Their own vulgar Latin, developed in the Dalmatian language, a now extinct Romance language.
These coastal cities (politically part of the Byzantine Empire) maintained political, cultural and economic links with Italy, through the Adriatic sea. On the other side communications with the mainland were difficult because of the Dinaric Alps. Due to the sharp orography of Dalmatia, even communications between the different Dalmatian cities, occurred mainly trough the sea. This helped Dalmatian cities to develop a unique Romance culture, despite the mostly Slavicized mainland. [17]
 

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Update: The article's Roman Dalmatia section link has been returned (26/12/2010) by editor 65.9.76.25. This type of Wiki-editing is very common.

Croatisation

Removing large sections of history within the Croatisation article link

The section gets put back in and then deleted again by Wiki-Editor PRODUCER link. Pure political bias:

 
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Croatisation of Italy's Julian March and Zadar

Template:See also

Even with a predominant Croatian majority, Dalmatia retained relatively large Italian communities in the coast (Italian majority in the cities and the islands, largest concentration in Istria). Italians in Dalmatia kept key political positions and Croatian majority had to make an enormous effort to get Croatian language into schools and offices. Most Dalmatian Italians gradually assimilated to the prevailing Croatian culture and language between the 1860s and World War I, although Italian language and culture remained present in Dalmatia. The community was granted minority rights in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia; during the Italian occupation of Dalmatia in World War II, it was caught in the ethnic violence towards non-Italians during fascist repression: what remained of the community fled the area after World War II. [18]

The history took its turn: while from 1919. - 1945. Italian Fascists stated by the proclamation that all Croatian and other non-Italian surnames must be turned to Italian ones (which they had chosen for every surname, so Anić became Anetti, Babačić Babetti etc.; 115.157 Croats and other non-Italians were forced to change their surname),[19] the Italian community of Istria and Dalmatia were forced to change their names to Croats and Yugoslav, during Tito's Yugoslavia.[20][21]

The same happened - but with lower incidence - with Italians in Istria and Fiume who were the majority of the population in most of the coastal areas in the first half of the 19th century, while at the beginning of World War I they numbered less than 50%.

After World War II most of the Italians left Istria and the cities of Italian Dalmatia in the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus.[22] The remaining Italians were forced to be assimilated culturally and even linguistically during Josip Broz Tito's rule of communist Yugoslavia.[23][24] Following the exodus, the areas were settled and heavily croatized with Yugoslav people.[24][25] Economic insecurity, ethnic hatred and the international political context that eventually led to the Iron Curtain resulted in up to 350,000 people, mostly Italians, forced to leave the region. The London Memorandum (1954) gave the ethnic Italians the choice of either leaving (the so-called optants) or staying. These exiles would have been to be given compensation for their loss of property and other indemnity by the Italian state under the terms of the peace treaties. Those opted to stay had to suffer a slow but forced croatisation.[26]

Some sporadic Croatization phenomena still took place in the last years of 20th century after Croatian Indipendency, despites many towns were declared bilingual by Croatian Law.[27][28]
 

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  • Combination of Nationalistic Extremism and Neo-Communism in the editing style.

See also

External links

Israel National News:

 
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Wikipedia has become the new battleground for Israel's PR image. The Yisrael Sheli (My Israel) movement and the Yesha Council, which represents Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, have joined together for a new public relations initiative. Together they will soon offer a special course for volunteers who wish to write and edit English entries on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.
 

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Notes and References

  1. ^ Identity Politics in the Age of Genocide: The Holocaust and Historical Representation by David Bruce MacDonald (p169)
  2. ^ Brotherhood and Unity was originally a policy of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
  3. ^ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Venetian Albania, 2011.Tue. 22 Feb. 2011". 2011. Retrieved 2011-02-22. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Venetian Albania Talk:Venetian Albania-Article scope
  5. ^ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Wikipedia:Talk Ustase- Invasion of SFR Yugoslavia in 1941 (???), 2011.Wed. 2 Mar. 2011". 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-2. Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  6. ^ Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the Mediterranean World after 1492 By Alisa Meyuhas Ginio (p190)
  7. ^ The Chicago Jewish forum, Volume 23 by Benjamin Weintroub (p271)
  8. ^ Footprint Croatia by Jane Foster (p271)
  9. ^ Croatia by Michael Schuman (p82)
  10. ^ Age, Marriage, and Politics in Fifteenth Century Ragusa by David Rheubottom. Book overview: This book combines the insights of history and anthropology with innovative techniques such as computer simulation to investigate the relationships between politics, kinship, and marriage in the late-medieval city-state of Ragusa (present-day Dubrovnik). At its heart is a reconsideration of `office' and the ways in which ties of kinship and marriage were mobilised to build electoral success.
  11. ^ Our Kingdom Come The Counter-Reformation, the Republic of Dubrovnik by Zdenko Zlatar
  12. ^ John Everett-Healu.Dalmatia Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names. Oxford University Press. 2005. Encyclopedia.com
  13. ^ Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to the Fall of Milosevic by Sabrina P. Ramet. Note: Croatisation is a form of Slavicisation.
  14. ^ Croatisation or Slavicisation was a policy firstly implemented under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
  15. ^ The Early Beginnings of Formal Education - Vela Luka (beginnings of literacy and Lower Primary School 1857 – 1870):
    • "Italian language was not only the official language in all public Dalmatian establishments, but also was the spoken language in a significant number of white-collar, civil service and merchant families in the cities and major markets within towns" (p.8 written in Croatian)
  16. ^ Concerning the Number of Italians/Pro-Italians in Dalmatia in the XIXth Century by Šime Peričić
    • "It is true, then a small colony of Italians where in Sibenik, on the island of Korcula, Hvar and Vis, and other places of the province."
  17. ^ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Dalmatian Italians" Check |url= value (help). 2010. Retrieved 2010-11-21. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ Društvo književnika Hrvatske, Bridge, Volume 1995, Nubers 9-10, Croatian literature series - Ministarstvo kulture, Croatian Writer's Association, 1989
  19. ^ Hrvoje Mezulić i Romano Jelić [1] (croatian)]
  20. ^ Nenad Vekarić, Pelješki rodovi, Vol. 2, HAZU, 1996 - ISBN 9789531540322
  21. ^ Jasminka Udovički and James Ridgeway, Burn this house: the making and unmaking of Yugoslavia
  22. ^ Several estimates of the Istrian-Julian exodus by historians:
    • Nevenka Troha (Slovene), 40,000 Italian and 3,000 Slovene exiles from Croatian and Slovenian territory.
    • Raoul Pupo (Italian), about 250,000 Italian exiles
    • Flaminio Rocchi (Italian), about 350,000 Italian exiles
    The mixed Italian-Slovenian Historical Commission verified 27,000 Italian and 3,000 Slovene migrants from Croatian and Slovenian territory.
  23. ^ Luciano Monzali, Antonio Tacconi e la comunità italiana di Spalato, Società dalmata di storia patria.
  24. ^ a b <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Darko Darovec. "THE PERIOD OF TOTALITARIAN RÉGIMES - The Reasons for the Exodus".
  25. ^ Liliana Ferrari, Essay on Raoul Pupo, pag. 5, Rizzoli, Gorizia 2005
  26. ^ Sabrina P. Ramet, Balkan babel: the disintegration of Yugoslavia from the death of Tito, Westview Press, 2002 «...and since the sixties, those of the rest of Croatia. The Istrian Democratic Party demanded autonomy for Istria, as a protection against "the forcible Croatization of Istria" and an imposition of a coarse and fanatical Croatism[...] Furio Radin argued that such autonomy was vital for the cultural protection of the Italian minority in Istria.»
  27. ^ «Pola, no to Italian chorus in St. Anthony church» in "Difesa Adriatica" year XIV n.5 - may 2008
  28. ^ Alex J. Bellamy, he formation of Croatian national identity, Manchester University Press, 2003, ISBN 9780719065026






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