The week at a glance...International

International

Ankara, Turkey

Kurdish spelling allowed: Kurds in Turkey are now allowed to use the letters Q, W, and X—not found in Turkish—to spell their names. The Turkish government this week announced a “democratization package” of reforms that give more rights to Kurds, including the right to use Kurdish spellings of their names and towns on official documents and the right to learn Kurdish in private, but not public, schools. The Islamist-leaning government also lifted the decades-long ban on women’s headscarves in public offices, in what was seen as a step away from Turkey’s rigorous separation of mosque and state. “Turkey is progressing irreversibly toward democracy,” said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “This will not be the last package of such reforms.”

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