Talk:Tal Afar

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[edit] Citing the New York Times

For some reason, PBP has twice cut this sentence from the article: "On Jan. 8, 2006, the New York Times described Tal Afar as 'a dusty, isolated city of a quarter-million people surrounded by desert and barren hills.'" I feel this both adds interesting information and gives a source, which official policy urges us to do. If some other user agrees, perhaps s/he could reintroduce the sentence. Mark K. Jensen 09:39, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

I took it out because it seems un-encyclopedic to describe a city based on a description from one newspaper. I don't think there's any other city on Wikipedia that is described with an American newspaper citation. I removed it and put in the 200,000 figure, taken from a Google search. PBP 00:13, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Tal Afar is not a Kurdish city.

More than 90 % of the population in Tal Afar are the Turkmen people. Some Kurdish population may be found in villages around Tal Afar, however the city itself consists of a vast majority of Turkmen people and also geographically the location is far away from the Kurdish territory. I think this should be corrected. 85.96.200.228

you can appoint me an official source. Muhamed 19:25, 23 March 2006 (UTC)


yes that the truth , i admit it as a kurd

there are some 50.000 kurds and arabs in and around the town but 80% are turkomen the kurds live north of it in sinjar and to the east toward mossul, to the south it is the land of the arab tribes but tal afar itself is turkish tal afar is the only bigger city in iraq with a turkmen majority

[edit] Religious demographics

My experience is that Tal Afar is mostly Sunni, with a significant Shia enclave concentrated primarily in neighborhoods southwest of the castle.--Artificialintel 18:08, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Iraq is more than a military playground

The article is about a city, the featured picture is of a tank. I understand that there aren't that many pictures of Iraqi cities availible for Wikipedia, but I do find it disturbingly imperialistic to put up that as the only picture of Tal Afar. It gives the impression that Iraq only is a military playground for the Americans. I suggest we remove it. --Merat 12:52, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

Ok, no reaction. I'll remove it and see what happens. --Merat 11:35, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Kurdish name for the city

Many thanks to the person who provided the city's name in the languages of its resident groups. But I just have to ask: Where is the Iraqi Kurdish name? Yes, someone has given the Kurdish name in the Latin alphabet, but that's not how Kurds in the area would render it, as they write their language in Arabic script. Can someone who writes Kurdish in Arabic script provide the name of the city? I'll look for it myself and I'll post it if I find it. Cheers. Rafa8134 22:56, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pictures...

I added a picture of the castle for the featured image. I took that picture and many others of the city while I was there in 2006. Among the others I have are a "welcome to Talafar" sign, and a picture of the Iraqi flag flying with a minarette in the background. Let me if you'd prefer to see one of those and I'll put it up. Kparker84 20:36, 31 October 2007 (UTC)