Turkey changes name at UN to ‘Turkiye’ for all foreign languages
The United Nations has changed the Republic of Turkey’s country name at the organization from “Turkey” to ‘Türkiye’, following a request from Ankara for the change.
Turkey’s government sent a letter to the UN formally requesting that it be referred to as Türkiye.
UN chief’s spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric said that a letter had been received on Wednesday from the Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu addressed to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, requesting the use of “Türkiye” instead of “Turkey” for all affairs.
The day before, Cavasoglu signed the letter, addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“With the letter I sent to the UN Secretary-General today, we are registering our country’s name in foreign languages at the UN as ‘Turkiye,’” he wrote, including an umlaut over the “u”.
He added that the change would bring to an end the process of “increasing the brand value of our country,” an initiative started by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has led the country for almost two decades.
Over the past few years, the country has sought to change the branding of its products from “made in Turkey” to “made in Turkiye.”
In addition to making the UN’s nomenclature match how the nation is spelled in Turkish, the update would also help distinguish the country from the bird of the same name in English.
“The name change may seem silly to some but it puts Erdogan in the role of protector, of safeguarding international respect for the country,” Georgetown University professor Mustafa Aksakal was quoted as saying in an international daily.
The move comes ahead of next year’s presidential election as well as the centenary of the nation’s founding after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
