The Turkish Wikipedia (Turkish: Türkçe Vikipedi) is the Turkish language edition of Wikipedia, spelled Vikipedi. Started on 5 December 2002, as of 4 April 2025, this edition has 632,026 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]

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

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]

Accuracy and updates

Experienced editors have been criticised for being unfriendly to new editors,[13] and for being slow to correct misinformation.[14]

Statistics

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. The Wikimedia Foundation can publish aggregated data about them 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.[15]

The censored variation of the logo used during the site block by Turkey

Milestones

  • January 2004 — 100 articles
  • July 2004 — 1,000 articles
  • November 2005 — 10,000 articles
  • March 2007 — 55,000 articles
  • February 2008 — 100,000 articles[16]
  • 9 December 2012 — 200,000 articles[17]
  • 27 April 2021 — 400,000 articles
  • 8 July 2022 — 500,000 articles[17]
  • 6 April 2024 — 600,000 articles

References

  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. ^ Aktaşoğlu, Metin (20 September 2024). "Vikipedi varoluşsal bir krizle karşı karşıya: Z kuşağı Özgür Ansiklopedi'yi kurtarabilir mi?". Mashable Türkiye - Teknoloji, Bilim, Sosyal Medya Haberleri ve Ürün İncelemeleri (in Turkish). Retrieved 16 March 2025.
  14. ^ Dalgıçoğlu, Ecem. "Yeşilçam'ın Efsanelerinden Salih Güney Vikipedi'nin Kendisini 'Jigolo' Olarak Tanıtmasına Sert Çıkıştı". Onedio (in Turkish). Retrieved 16 March 2025. Mesele benim doğum tarihim 1 Ocak 1945. Türk Vikipedi'de 1943 yazıyor. Kardeşim neden 1945 değil, 1943 yazıyorsun? Avukatım vasıtasıyla nüfus kağıdımı ilettim ancak hâlâ 1943 yazıyor" şeklinde isyan etti.
  15. ^ "Wikimedia Foundation Country and Territory Protection List - Wikimedia Foundation Governance Wiki". foundation.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  16. ^ "List of Wikipedias/Table - Meta".
  17. ^ a b Wikipedia:Milestone statistics
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