Hi there,
I get reports from Turkey that Internet Cafes have begun to block several Kurdish sites including the Kurdish Wikipedia, which I am admin on. While it is known that political sites hosted in Europe are being censored in the whole of Turkey, the selective blocking of sites like Wikipedia using special software seems to be something new.
After the sentencing of a dmoz editor to 10 months in prison two weeks ago this looks like another escalation.
Before all, I want to be sure that there is a significant fall in the access rate from Turkey. Unfortunately the Webalizer statistics do not work at the moment. Can anybody with a better insight verify if there is a notable fall in accesses from Turkey to the Kurdish Wikipedia?
Thanks, Erdal
Hi Erdal,
This news surprises me very much.
With the ultimate prize of EU membership, I had thought Turkey was really committed to reform and expanding minority rights a little, but apparently not.
I think it's very nasty that Turkey can still expect to be admitted to the EU when it is still doing things like arresting somebody just for editing the Kurdish section of DMOZ (I don't know the incident, but most likely the charges against them are "seperatism").
I think you should bring this horrendous behaviour on the part of the Turkish government to the attention of Amnesty International. This person was sentenced to 10 months just for writing DMOZ content in their own language? Turkey doesn't have a very good human rights level, but I really thought things were changing.
As for the Kurdish Wikipedia being blocked, can you think of any possible reasons other than the simple fact that it is in Kurdish?
If it is being blocked in individual netcafes, one possible strategy is to try to mobilise Wikipedians of all nationalities in a letter- (or e-mail-) writing campaign to request that these companies lift their illogical block of a totally educational and appropriate site.
I don't know whether or not there has really been a significant drop, but if ku.wikipedia is being blocked for the single reason that it is in Kurdish (with probably some stupid charge to cover it up like "we don't know what it says, it could be erotica" or "it incites political violence"), regardless of how it effects the numbers, we really should try to do something.
Xêrxuazî Mark
On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 02:00:26 +0100, Erdal Ronahi erdal.ronahi@gmx.net wrote:
Hi there,
I get reports from Turkey that Internet Cafes have begun to block several Kurdish sites including the Kurdish Wikipedia, which I am admin on. While it is known that political sites hosted in Europe are being censored in the whole of Turkey, the selective blocking of sites like Wikipedia using special software seems to be something new.
After the sentencing of a dmoz editor to 10 months in prison two weeks ago this looks like another escalation.
Before all, I want to be sure that there is a significant fall in the access rate from Turkey. Unfortunately the Webalizer statistics do not work at the moment. Can anybody with a better insight verify if there is a notable fall in accesses from Turkey to the Kurdish Wikipedia?
Thanks, Erdal
Wikipedia-l mailing list Wikipedia-l@Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l
Mark Williamson wrote: <snip>
I don't know whether or not there has really been a significant drop, but if ku.wikipedia is being blocked for the single reason that it is in Kurdish (with probably some stupid charge to cover it up like "we don't know what it says, it could be erotica" or "it incites political violence"), regardless of how it effects the numbers, we really should try to do something.
Xêrxuazî Mark
Hello,
It surprises me a lot.
I believe we can gather some facts and write a press release. I am sure at least french Medias will be really receptive to it.
cheers,
This would be good to look into. As others in this thread indicated, this is about the LEAST opportune moment for the Turkish government to do this. With the discussion of EU-membership coming up, any negative news about the Turkish human rights situations would be most unwelcome to the Turkish authorities. My proposed line of action would be: 1. Try to ascertain that there are indeed problems, we could for example ask the people from the Turkish Wikipedia to try and have a look. 2. If so, send a message to Turkish authorities, threatening with informing European press (of course smoothed down, something like "Before sending this information to the press, we would like to have your reaction to ascertain that this is not a temporary technical problem")
Andre Engels
On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 02:00:26 +0100, Erdal Ronahi erdal.ronahi@gmx.net wrote:
I get reports from Turkey that Internet Cafes have begun to block several Kurdish sites including the Kurdish Wikipedia, which I am admin on. While it is known that political sites hosted in Europe are being censored in the whole of Turkey, the selective blocking of sites like Wikipedia using special software seems to be something new.
After the sentencing of a dmoz editor to 10 months in prison two weeks ago this looks like another escalation.
Before all, I want to be sure that there is a significant fall in the access rate from Turkey. Unfortunately the Webalizer statistics do not work at the moment. Can anybody with a better insight verify if there is a notable fall in accesses from Turkey to the Kurdish Wikipedia?
Hi,
This would be good to look into. As others in this thread indicated, this is about the LEAST opportune moment for the Turkish government to do this.
Although I have no sympathy for the present Turkish government, I must state that I am NOT talking about a block on a countrywide level. There are people I personally know that are contributing from inside Turkey. But one contributer stated that he used to work from internet cafes and that it is usual that Kurdish sites are being censored there. Just that some of the cafes seem to have added Wikipedia to the blacklist is new.
Turkey is not as 100% government controlled as China or Iran may be, it may well be a censorship in the initiative of local autorities or individual internet cafe owners.
With the discussion of EU-membership coming up, any negative news about the Turkish human rights situations would be most unwelcome to the Turkish authorities.
That is true, but last week a 12-year old boy was killed with 13 bullets from the gun of a military, so internet censorship is not one of the major problems today. The disappointing fact is that Europe does more think of itself (muslims, migration etc.) than of the human rights situation in Turkey.
My proposed line of action would be:
- Try to ascertain that there are indeed problems
That's what I originally intended with my posting. I used to read the Webalizer statistics, but they have been unavailable for quite a while now.
example ask the people from the Turkish Wikipedia to try and have a look.
Most of them contribute form the USA, but it's worth a try.
Greetings, Erdal
One thing that definitely IS the government's fault is the arrest of a man, as you mentioned, simply for editing the Kurdish DMOZ. Any such human rights violations are a bargaining chip that the Kurdish people have with Turkey - "We will get this to the European press if you don't undo it, and that means no EU membership"
Mark
On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 22:35:40 +0100, Erdal Ronahi erdal.ronahi@gmx.net wrote:
Hi,
This would be good to look into. As others in this thread indicated, this is about the LEAST opportune moment for the Turkish government to do this.
Although I have no sympathy for the present Turkish government, I must state that I am NOT talking about a block on a countrywide level. There are people I personally know that are contributing from inside Turkey. But one contributer stated that he used to work from internet cafes and that it is usual that Kurdish sites are being censored there. Just that some of the cafes seem to have added Wikipedia to the blacklist is new.
Turkey is not as 100% government controlled as China or Iran may be, it may well be a censorship in the initiative of local autorities or individual internet cafe owners.
With the discussion of EU-membership coming up, any negative news about the Turkish human rights situations would be most unwelcome to the Turkish authorities.
That is true, but last week a 12-year old boy was killed with 13 bullets from the gun of a military, so internet censorship is not one of the major problems today. The disappointing fact is that Europe does more think of itself (muslims, migration etc.) than of the human rights situation in Turkey.
My proposed line of action would be:
- Try to ascertain that there are indeed problems
That's what I originally intended with my posting. I used to read the Webalizer statistics, but they have been unavailable for quite a while now.
example ask the people from the Turkish Wikipedia to try and have a look.
Most of them contribute form the USA, but it's worth a try.
Greetings, Erdal
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