On 2 June, the United Nations recognized the new spelling of the country of Turkey. Now Turkey has to be spelt ‘Turkiye’ instead of ‘Turkey’ in English.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the move would “increase the brand value of our country”.
“The main reason Turkiye changed its name was to remove the link between the country and ‘turkey’,” Sinan Ulgen, Director of the Edam Analytical Centre in Istanbul, told CNN.
Ulgen said that although international organizations were now obliged to use Turkiey’s new name, for the general public the change would not happen overnight, and it might take many years before the new name was accepted by the public.
This is not Turkiey’s first attempt to change its name. In the middle of the 1980s, a similar attempt, but with less success, was made by then Prime Minister Turgut Ozal.
Türkiye is now Turkey in Turkish. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decree of 3 December last year said: “Türkiye best represents and embodies Turkiye’s national culture, civilization and values. The proud ‘Made in Türkiye’ replaces ‘Made in Turkey’”.
Analysts say that for incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is seeking re-election next year, Turkiye’s new name could not better express “culture, civilization and values of the Turkish nations”.
Francesco Siccardi, Senior Program Manager at the Carnegie Europe, said it was “a strategy deployed by the Turkish government to reach out to nationalist voters”. He said that the current name change was “decisive” for next year’s elections: “The decision to change the name was announced in December, when Erdogan was well behind in all opinions polls as Turkiye had been going through economic crises for the past 20 years”. But Ulgen believes that the name change has more to do with improving Turkiye’s international status than an election stunt.
According to the Anadolu Turkish State Agency, the new Turkiye brand has begun to be used in foreign languages.
UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarrik said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asking him to replace Turkey at international events. On 31 May, Cavusoglu announced that the letter had been officially handed over to the UN and other international organizations.
Dujarrik pointed out that the correction of Turkiey’s name took effect from the moment the United Nations received the letter from Cavusoglu.
On the same day, in an exclusive interview with Anadolu News Agency Cavusoglu said: “Together with the Presidential Public Relations Office we have successfully laid a good foundation for the United Nations, other international organizations and countries to switch to Turkiey”.
State media, including the Anadolu Information Agency and TRT World, immediately switched to Turkiey in their reporting, while the websites of the Presidential Palace and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also switched to Turkiey.
“Xenophobic, Islamophobic opponents often compare Turkiey to a turkey. Therefore, it is of great importance to save the reputation of the country,’ Meriem Ilayda Atlas, TRT World board member and journalist, said.
The English word ‘turkey’ has been indeed a pain for many Turks for decades.
Turkiey’s Presidential Communication Agency launched the ‘HELLO! Turkiey!’ campaign in January to introduce the country’s correct name to the masses. Calling on civil society, the media and academia to support the name change, agency administrator Fakhrettin Altun said: “We can strengthen the Turkiey brand through solidarity with the world”.
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