Report by Aryaa Sinha
Ankara, 16 June: Turkey will now be called Türkiye after the UN granted them the permission to call it so. The country’s full official name will be Republic of Turkiye.
The process of changing the country’s name started in December 2021 after the Country’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a statement to change the country’s name, which is officially done now. While the two names are pronounced similarly, Turkiye features a third syllable, which is pronounced something like “yay”
Re-branding campaign
The government of Turkey has started a rebranding campaign. “Turkiye” will now be used in all foreign languages. The Turkish National Carrier will be rebranded as “Türkiye Hava Yolları” instead of “Turkish Airlines” and “Made in Turkiye “will feature on all exported products.
In January this year, the government also launched a tourism campaign with “Hello Turkiye” as the tag line.
Reason for name change
According to a report, the word Turkey was adopted in the year 1923, after the country’s independence. In the past, Europeans have referred to the Ottoman Empire and Turkiye by many names. But the names that stuck the most are “Turquia “and “Turkey”.
Further, the Turkish government was not happy with the Google search results and Cambridge dictionary definition of the word Turkey. So, the move is seen as a part of a push to dissociate its name from the bird by the same name and some associated negative connotations.
Other countries that change their names.
Some other countries that changed their names, either to drop colonial legacies or to rebrand are:
Holland –Netherland
Macedonia-North Macedonia
Siam-Thailand
Rhodesia-Zimbabwe
Swaziland-Eswatini
Ceylon – Srilanka
Persia-Iran
Upper Volta-Burkina Faso
Burma – Myanmar
About Turkiye
Turkiye is a peninsula between the 2 continents – Asia and Europe.
It is surrounded by Black sea , Mediterranean sea, and the Aegean Sea.
Ankara is the national capital and Istanbul is the largest city of Turkiye. Istanbul was earlier called Constantinople.
Image credit: Official website of director of communications