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THE TURKISH government plans to change its internationally recognized name in English to Türkiye. The seriousness of the Turkish government is manifested by registering it with the United Nations in the coming weeks.
Two Turkish officials told Middle East Eye, citing Middle East Eye, saying the Turkish government could change the name with a simple notification to the UN registry but the letter “Ü”, which is not in the nominal Latin alphabet, could be a problem.
Türkiye means Turkey in Turkish. A senior Turkish official said Ankara had not discussed the issue of the letter “Ü” with the United Nations, but the source hoped a solution could be found soon. Some observers say one way out of this problem could be to use “U” instead of “Ü” in the new name.
“The exact time for the name change is still under the government’s consideration. But the process is ongoing,” a senior Turkish official told Middle East Eye.
A UN spokesman said Turkey had contacted them about the possible name change.
“The Permanent Mission of Turkey has contacted the UN Protocol to check about the procedure for communicating the change of country name if this change occurs, but we have not received any official communication,” the spokesman said.
The Greek Reporter reports that Turkey’s new name came to the fore after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan released a statement earlier this month announcing that he would change his Turkish name to Türkiye.
“The word Türkiye represents and expresses the culture, civilization and values of the Turkish nation in the best possible way, the statement reads. Türkiye is the name used for the country in the Turkish language, and the country now wants to bring that name to the world,” said the President Erdoan.
He explained, in order to strengthen the Türkiye brand, in all kinds of activities and correspondence, especially in official relations with other countries and international institutions and organizations, the term Türkiye will be used instead of terms such as ‘Turkey’, ‘Turkei’, ‘Turquie’ and so on.
“Türkiye is accepted as an umbrella brand for our country in national and international venues. Turkey is the best representation and expression of the culture, civilization and values of the Turkish people,” Erdogan said.
However, neither Erdogan nor his representatives indicated exactly when the name change would be officially implemented.
“The exact timing of the name change is still under consideration by the government,” a senior government official told Middle East Eye. “But the process is ongoing.”‘
Initially, the Turkish public did not know how serious their government was in taking this initiative. However, publicly funded news networks quickly followed in the government’s footsteps. Anadolu news agencies and TRT World now use “Türkiye” in their English broadcasts.
One TRT World article tries to explain why by referring to an English dictionary: Flip through the Cambridge Dictionary and “turkey” is defined as “something that fails badly” or “a stupid or silly person”.
The foreign ministry, meanwhile, wasted no time. Its website now welcomes visitors with the title “Republic of Türkiye”. Turkish overseas missions around the world now also use “Türkiye” in their correspondence. [kontan.co.id/photo special]
