The U.S. State Department on Thursday said it has adopted Ankara’s preferred spelling for the name of the country, Türkiye, acceding to a request from the NATO ally after several months of hesitation. The State Department has instructed that new official documents refer to Türkiye instead of Turkey, although the pronunciation will not change, officials said.
But neither the State Department website nor the Foreign Affairs Manual, which guides U.S. diplomatic practices, had been revised to reflect the change as of midday Thursday.
“The Turkish embassy requested that the U.S. government use the name ‘Republic of Türkiye’ in communications. We will begin to refer to Türkiye and Republic of Türkiye accordingly in most formal, diplomatic, and bilateral contexts, including in public communications,” the department said.
The move comes ahead of an expected visit to Washington by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu later this month during which in addition to bilateral relations, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Finland and Sweden’s bid to join NATO are expected to be high on agenda.
Several other federal agencies, including the U.S. Treasury Department, had already adopted the new spelling. The change was revealed as the State Department released a statement, in support of a Treasury move, saying that the U.S. and Türkiye have taken joint action to freeze the assets of a Daesh-related network.
“The Department will use the spelling that you saw today in most of our formal diplomatic and bilateral contexts, including in public communications,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said. But he added “Turkey” was not forbidden when “in furtherance of broader public understanding” as it is “more widely understood by the American public.”
Ankara last year asked for the country’s name to be changed to Türkiye in international forums and most, including the United Nations and NATO, had switched to the new spelling.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called for the use of “Türkiye” to better represent Turkish culture and values, including demanding that “Made in Türkiye” be used instead of “Made in Turkey” on exported products.
The State Department, however, does not often change its style on the names of foreign countries and, in at least one notable case, has refused to do so for decades. The U.S. still refuses to refer to Burma as Myanmar although the country's military rulers formally adopted Myanmar in 1989.
The last two countries that the State Department renamed following requests by their governments were North Macedonia, which changed its name from Macedonia in 2019, and Eswatini, which changed its name from Swaziland a year earlier.
