Wow, Andreas. That's taking several major leaps of logic. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Any reason why you brought these rather extraordinary assumptions to this mailing list before Susanna had even had a chance to respond to your question at her nomination page?
Risker/Anne On 2 March 2016 at 18:15, Andreas Kolbe <jayen...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Wed, Mar 2, 2016 at 8:11 PM, Yaroslav M. Blanter <pute...@mccme.ru> > wrote: > > > Susanna is (or was) a researcher, and every researcher in Armenia is a > > state employee. There are just no non-governmental organizations who > employ > > researchers. > > > > I do think there is a problem with a potential Armenian board member > (that > > is, Turkish and Azeri Wikimedians would basically consider board as not > > legitimate), but I do not think the fact that she is or was employed by > the > > Academy of Sciences is in any way problematic. > > > > Cheers > > Yaroslav > > > Yaroslav, > > In and of itself, the fact that Susanna is a government employee doesn't > worry me either. Present WMF board member Alice Wiegand is a government > employee too, if you will (she works as an aide to the mayor of a small > town in Germany, according to her write-up on the WMF website). > > The difference between Alice's situation and Susanna's is that the Armenian > president turned up for the opening of the Wikimedia Armenia office in > Yerevan.[1] The German president, in contrast, has probably never even > heard of Alice. He certainly didn't attend when Wikimedia Germany was > launched, nor did he have members of his cabinet tell the German public on > national TV that it was their duty to edit the German Wikipedia. > > The Armenian Wikipedia initiative is a matter of direct and personal > interest to the President and government ministers of Armenia, a country > that suppresses political dissent. It is impossible to escape the > conclusion that the initiative is directed by them. This will be crystal > clear to anyone in Armenia who has watched the YouTube video:[2] the > Armenian Wikipedia will be perceived as a project of the Armenian > government. > > The chilling effect on opposition sympathisers and dissidents who might > otherwise like to participate in an open encyclopedia project is monstrous. > The likelihood that the Armenian Wikipedia will flourish under such > circumstances and develop into a politically neutral reference work is nil. > > I don't know Susanna, and in fact until yesterday had never heard of her. > She may well be a delightful and charming person with a genuine enthusiasm > for open knowledge. There are after all many encyclopedic topics that have > no political sensitivity or relevance at all. But she is clearly part of a > government-sponsored effort to control the Armenian Wikipedia. > > Does it make sense to you that we cheer when Wikipedians stand up to the > government in France, which is a fairly democratic and open country, and > cheer equally when far more repressive regimes than that of France take > such an intense interest in their national-language Wikipedia? > > What would you say if Putin started to endorse Wikimedia Russia and > attended its events, and members of his cabinet told the public to edit > Wikipedia as part of their civic duty? > > Andreas > > [1] > > http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/06/19/president-sargsyan-attends-opening-of-wikimedia-armenia-office-in-yerevan/ > [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zazVM3ldIuw > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
