The United States agrees to change the spelling of Turkey to Turkiye
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Hashim Sheikh
- . January 6, 2023
- . Update: January 6, 2023 3:51 pm
The United States (US) has agreed to a request by the Turkish government to change the spelling of Turkey to Turkiye, according to the State Department.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government called on other countries to stop writing the word Turkey. The Turkish President urged other countries to adopt the name change from Turkey to Turkiye.
US state department spokesman Ned Price reportedly said, “The Turkish embassy did request that we use this spelling in our communications.” He further said that the State Department would use ‘Turkiye’ spelling in most of the US formal diplomatic and bilateral contexts, agreeing to a request by the Turkish government.
In August 2022, the Pentagon, the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense, started writing Turkiye in official papers. The state department has started occasionally using the spelling on Twitter.
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In 2021, the Turkish government ordered countries and international organisations using Latin script to consistently use the spelling of Turkiye for his country.
Reportedly, the embassy websites in Ankara of the US, Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand write Turkiye.
The recent announcement by the US State Department comes as a Turkish top diplomat is expected to reach the US for talks on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as Finland and Sweden’s NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) membership bids.
Recently, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions on the Islamic State network in Turkiye. In a joint action with Turkiye, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on four individuals and two entities, accusing them of enabling the terrorist group’s recruitment and financial transfers to and from Syria and Iraq.
In a press release, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned terrorist activities and pledged to cooperate on countering terrorism financing.
Last year, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on four individuals and eight companies operating in South Africa.
