The Turkish Wikipedia (Turkish: Türkçe Vikipedi) is the Turkish language edition of Wikipedia, spelled Vikipedi. Started on 5 December 2002, as of 15 November 2024, this edition has 624,197 articles and is the 25th largest Wikipedia edition, and ranks 16th in terms of depth among Wikipedias.[1] Turkish Wikipedia has around 3 billion pageviews each year.[2]

Favicon of Wikipedia Turkish Wikipedia
85%
Screenshot
Main Page of the Turkish Wikipedia in September 2022
Type of site
Internet encyclopedia project
Available inTurkish
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California
OwnerWikimedia Foundation
URLtr.wikipedia.org
CommercialNo
RegistrationOptional
Launched5 December 2002; 21 years ago (2002-12-05)
Current statusActive. Regional block lifted on 15 January 2020

In March 2017, before the block of Wikipedia in Turkey, 90% of pageviews of Turkish Wikipedia were from within the country. Germany was second with 2% share, as there are many Turks in Germany. Azerbaijan was the third country with 1.4% share, as Turkish and Azerbaijani are mutually intelligible Oghuz languages.[3] Although the block was lifted in 2020, statistics for pageviews in Turkey and most other Turkic speaking countries are no longer published; but those for some countries; such as Kyrgyzstan, Germany and the United States are.[4]

History

edit

In 2006, the Turkish Wikipedia was nominated under the Science category for Altın Örümcek Web Ödülleri [tr] (Golden Spider Web Awards), which are commonly known as the "Web Oscars" for Turkey.[5] In January 2007, the Turkish Wikipedia was given the award for "Best Content" in this competition. The award was given in a ceremony on 25 January 2007 at Istanbul Technical University.[6][7]

In 2015, its banner drawing attention to the gender bias on Wikipedia drew the attention of the Turkish media.[8]

On 29 April 2017, the Turkish government blocked access to Wikipedia.[9] While the reasons for the blockage were unrevealed, some believe that the encyclopedia had been blocked due to the Turkish government's concerns about articles critical of its actions regarding Turkey–ISIL cooperation.[10][11] In December 2019, the Constitutional Court of Turkey ruled that the ban violated freedom of expression. On 15 January 2020, the ban was lifted after 991 days.[12]

Statistics

edit

As of 2024, the Wikimedia Foundation says about Türkiye and Turkmenistan:

“These countries and territories are at higher risk of action being taken against Wikimedia community members for on-platform activities.”

so it:

“can publish aggregated data about [Türkiye] only using differential privacy such that any consumer of the data will be (in the worst case) at most 2.5% more certain about a data subject's presence or absence in the dataset.”[13]

 
The censored variation of the logo used during the block

Milestones

edit
  • January 2004 — 100 articles
  • July 2004 — 1,000 articles
  • November 2005 — 10,000 articles
  • March 2007 — 55,000 articles
  • February 2008 — 100,000 articles[14]
  • 9 December 2012 — 200,000 articles[15]
  • 27 April 2021 — 400,000 articles
  • 8 July 2022 — 500,000 articles[15]
  • 6 April 2024 — 600,000 articles

References

edit
  1. ^ "List of Wikipedias - Meta". Meta.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  2. ^ "Wikistats - Statistics For Wikimedia Projects". stats.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 28 January 2024.
  3. ^ "Wikimedia Traffic Analysis Report - Page Views Per Wikipedia Language - Breakdown". stats.wikimedia.org. March 2017. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
  4. ^ "Wikistats - Statistics For Wikimedia Projects". stats.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  5. ^ "5. Altın Örümcek Web Ödülleri".
  6. ^ "Altın Örümcek - Geçmiş Yıllar - Değerlendirme Süreci". Archived from the original on 9 December 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  7. ^ "Altın Örümcek ödülleri açıklandı". 10 April 2008.
  8. ^ "Google 8 Mart Dünya Kadınlar Günü doodle'ı hazırladı" (in Turkish). Radikal. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  9. ^ "Turkish authorities block Wikipedia". BBC News. BBC. 29 April 2017. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  10. ^ "Terör destekçisi Wikipedia'ya yasak" (in Turkish). Sabah. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  11. ^ "Turkey blocks Wikipedia over what it calls terror 'smear campaign'". CNN. 29 April 2017. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  12. ^ "Turkey restores access to Wikipedia after 991 days". NetBlocks. 15 January 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  13. ^ "Wikimedia Foundation Country and Territory Protection List - Wikimedia Foundation Governance Wiki". foundation.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  14. ^ "List of Wikipedias/Table - Meta".
  15. ^ a b Wikipedia:Milestone statistics
edit