According to a report in Reuters today, a Turkish court in Siirt imposed fines of 100 new lira upon each of twenty people for using the letters Q and W on placards at a Kurdish new-year celebration. A law in Turkey bans the use of any characters not used in the Turkish alphabet. Q and W appear in the Kurdish alphabet but not in the Turkish alphabet. Enacted in 1928, the Turkish law abandoned Arabic script in favour of a modified Latin alphabet (without Q and W) and required its use on all signs, advertising, newspapers and government documents.

Dickens said the law is an ass. It is apparently also a turkey.