Turkey’s preferred spelling of its name accepted by the US

AP reports that Turkey’s preferred spelling of “Türkiye” has now been accepted by the U.S. State Department. The change had been requested by Turkey back in May 2022, and though other international organizations, such as the United Nations, had begun to refer to the country as “Türkiye,” the US had not.

The State Department has said, “The Turkish embassy requested that the U.S. government use the name ‘Republic of Türkiye’ in communications,” and “we will begin to refer to Türkiye and Republic of Türkiye accordingly in most formal, diplomatic, and bilateral contexts, including in public communications.” The pronunciation of the country, however, will remain the same.

The State Department does not always abide by country’s requests of name changes. For example, the Department still refers to Burma as Myanmar though the latter name was adopted in 1989.

Although other federal agencies, such as the Treasury Department, had made the change in Turkey’s spelling, the State Department used “Türkiye” for the first time in a press release on January 5.

Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu, who had asked international bodies to make the change, is set to visit Washington later this January. Turkey’s position in Russia’s war against Ukraine, in addition to the country’s concerns surrounding Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO will be discussed.