Turkey has told the United Nations that, at the behest of its president, it wants to be called “Türkiye” in all languages from now on, the UN announced on Thursday.
“The change is immediate,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
He specified that it was an official letter from Ankara received on Wednesday at the UN headquarters that immediately formalized the change of name of Turkey.
Ankara thus avoids that the name of the country in English is “Turkey”, a word that in that language also means “turkey” and therefore could acquire a negative connotation.
On Tuesday, Ankara’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu posted on his Twitter account a letter addressed to the UN Secretary-General demanding that “the name of (your) country in the UN, in foreign languages, be registered as Turkiye”.
The head of Turkish diplomacy referred in his tweet to President Erdogan’s desire, from the end of 2021, to “increase the brand value” of his country.
In fact, in economic matters, Ankara has been wanting to impose the “made in Türkiye” brand internationally for several years, to the detriment of “made in Turkey”.
“Some may find this name change silly, but it puts Erdogan in the role of protector and safeguard of international respect for the country,” said Mustafa Aksakal, a history professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
The newspaper recalls that in June 2023, when Erdogan celebrates 20 years in power, Turkey will hold presidential elections and also the centenary of its foundation after the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire.
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