Turkey Formally Changes Its Name To Türkiye [VIDEO]

The Guardian reports:

Turkey’s government has sent a letter to the United Nations formally requesting that it be referred to as Türkiye, the state-run news agency has reported. The move is seen as part of a push by Ankara to rebrand the country and dissociate it from the bird of the same name and negative connotations associated with it.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government has been pressing for the internationally recognised name Turkey to be changed to Türkiye (tur-key-YAY) as it is spelled and pronounced in Turkish. The country called itself Türkiye in 1923 after its declaration of independence.

It was not clear whether the name, with a letter that doesn’t exist in the English alphabet, will catch on widely abroad. In 2016, the Czech Republic officially registered its short-form name, Czechia, and while some international institutions use it, many still refer to the country by its longer name.

CNN reports:

UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric told CNN Thursday that the UN accepted the change, and it became effective as soon as they received the request and made sure that the document was legitimate, which was on Wednesday.

“It’s not an issue, it’s not for us to accept or not accept,” Dujarric said. “Countries are free to choose the way they want to be named. It doesn’t happen every day but it’s not unusual that countries change their names.”

“One that comes to the top of my head is Côte d’Ivoire, which used to be referred to in English as Ivory Coast and they requested Côte d’Ivoire,” the spokesman added.

The BBC reports:



Most Turks already know their country as Türkiye. However the anglicised form Turkey is widely used, even within the country.

State broadcaster TRT was quick to make the change as soon as it was announced last year, explaining that among the reasons for the image rebrand was the association with the bird traditionally associated with Christmas, New Year or Thanksgiving.

It also pointed out the Cambridge English Dictionary’s definition of one of the meanings of the word as “something that fails badly” or “a stupid or silly person”.