[OSM-talk] Persian/Arabian Gulf Tagging

[Mosab Al-Bakry]

At this point, to me, this feels like a misunderstanding of OSM rules. Do we always invoke the historical/international naming over the local naming of an area? If so, have OSM deprecated its "on the ground rule" or do I just misunderstanding its meaning? I would prefer a neutral third-party clarification on this rule.

Musaab

> On Dec 9, 2021, at 3:46 PM, Niels Elgaard Larsen <elgaard at agol.dk> wrote:
> 
> På Thu, 9 Dec 2021 14:46:57 +0300
> Mostafa Ahangarha <ahangarha at riseup.net> skrev:
>>> On 12/9/21 2:08 PM, Christoph Hormann wrote:
>>> If there is a verifiable local name and what that name is, is the
>>> subject to decide on.  This question requires familiarity with and
>>> local knowledge of the region.  People from Europe and North America
>>> who 'know' what the name is only from their TV news and newspapers
>>> are not qualified to answer that question.
>> The point is that this gulf is much more that something to be claimed
>> by its neighboring countries. Legally, countries have claim on certain
>> depth of it as their territory and beyond that is international water.
>> Who can name this international water? By referring to International
>> name I don't necessarily mean people (who get these info not just from
>> TV but also text book and other sources, indicting that this is the
>> common name used there) but also in formal sphere.
> 
> 
> Yes, exactly.
> 
> For example the North Sea is called Vesterhavet (The West Sea) here in
> Denmark. 
> Historically the Dutch named it Nordzee. And we Danes just have to
> accept that the dutch name stuck internationally.
> 
> Now that I look it up, I see that in french OSM have it as "Mer
> Germanique" whereas in fr.Wikipedia it is  "Mer du Nord". But I will
> leave that to native french speaking contributors.
> 
> 
> 
>> There has been different reasons historically why a certain name is
>> chosen for a given place. We cannot close our eyes and overnight come
>> and change that name.
>> This Gulf historically was called Persian Gulf. We can even find its
>> trace in some of formal documents in the region. And even today, this
>> gulf is called Persian Gulf internationally. Sure we can find Arabian
>> gulf as well but in terms of number and ratio I don't think one can
>> make a reasonable comparison.
>> So if this water body, historically and internationally has a common
>> name, who is there to change this name? How can we come and ask
>> everybody to call it something else? How can I wipe history like this?
>> This water body doesn't belong to any of its neighboring countries so
>> that decision for its name should come from what the international
>> society determine.
> 
> 
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