Basque Wikipedia Basque Wikipedia The Basque Wikipedia ( or "Euskal Wikipedia" in Basque) is the Basque language edition of Wikipedia. Founded on December 6, 2001 (although its main page was created in November 2003) and reaching 58,124 articles by August 19, 2010, making it the 45th-largest Wikipedia. As of 2019, it has active contributors, of which are administrators, and has about articles. In an August 2007 interview, Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, used the Basque Wikipedia as an example of the rationale for having Wikipedias in smaller languages: On January 25, 2008, the Basque Wikipedia was awarded the Argia Saria granted by
Jimmy Wales away in part because of his spending habits, a claim Wales denied. Then-chairperson of the foundation Florence Devouard and former foundation interim Executive Director Brad Patrick denied any wrongdoing by Wales or the foundation, saying that Wales accounted for every expense and that, for items for which he lacked receipts, he paid out of his own pocket; in private, Devouard upbraided Wales for "constantly trying to rewrite the past". Later in March 2008, it was claimed by Jeffrey Vernon Merkey that Wales had edited Merkey's Wikipedia entry to make it more favorable in return for donations to the Wikimedia Foundation,