This is amazing! Congrats to everyone who worked so hard on this!! 🎉


> On Dec 26, 2019, at 1:05 PM, Katherine Maher <kma...@wikimedia.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I have some good news to share with you all -- after nearly three years of 
> Wikipedia being blocked in Turkey, the Turkish Constitutional Court has ruled 
> that this is unconstitutional. We hope that access will be restored soon in 
> light of this ruling, and will keep you updated as we hear further 
> developments. 
> 
> Please join me in congratulating the Wikimedia community in Turkey, the 
> millions of Wikipedia readers in Turkey, and all of those struggling under 
> censorship around the world, on this critical affirmation of the fundamental 
> right to knowledge. 
> 
> Imposed in April of 2017, the block has prevented the 80+ million people in 
> Turkey from accessing and participating in all language versions of 
> Wikipedia. It also prevented members of our community in Turkey from freely 
> engaging with the projects and impaired our movement’s global effort to 
> represent the sum of all knowledge. 
> 
> As many of you might recall, we had filed an urgent application to the 
> European Court of Human Rights in April 2019. Our petition on the legality of 
> the access ban is currently before the ECHR and we are evaluating our next 
> steps based on this latest ruling. 
> 
> A team from within and outside the Wikimedia Foundation has been working 
> diligently since the block was instituted to restore full access in Turkey. 
> Throughout this process, we have been guided by our Wikimedia values and a 
> belief that Wikipedia must be accessible in its entirety; with no censorship 
> of any kind to be tolerated. We worked closely with Wikimedia community 
> members in Turkey to understand and act in a way that reflected their needs, 
> wishes, and local context. We also benefited greatly from conversations with 
> experts around the world.
> 
> We will be posting more information on the Foundation website soon. In the 
> meantime, I wanted to offer my sincere appreciation and admiration to the 
> members of our community in Turkey -- you have shown great integrity, 
> courage, and dedication. Your unwavering commitment to the Wikimedia 
> projects, despite the obstacles placed in front of you, is an inspiration to 
> us all. 
> 
> Thank you to every Wikimedia community member around the world who showed 
> support for the Turkish community. Your commitment to our sense of community 
> and the strength of our global movement is an inspiration. 
> 
> Finally, I would also like to thank the many Foundation staff and others 
> involved over the past months for your exceptional diligence, 
> professionalism, and tact in handling a delicate situation. 
> 
> While this is a favorable ruling for our case in Turkey, it remains to be 
> seen whether the Turkish government will indeed restore access in Turkey. And 
> serious threats to free knowledge remain around the world. Today's ruling is 
> a reminder of the work we still left to do.
> 
> But at this moment, let us celebrate this important recognition that the 
> right to information is fundamental to every human, with happy anticipation 
> of the return of Turkey to our global community of editors, readers, and 
> knowledge seekers.
> 
> Katherine
> 
> -- 
> 
> Katherine Maher (she/her)
> Executive Director 
> Wikimedia Foundation 
> 
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