On Friday, January 6, the US State Department announced that it would stop using the word “Turkey” to refer to Turkey and instead use the spelling “Türkiye”, after Ankara’s request. We explain to you why such a change took place?
But why did Turkey push so hard to change its country’s name to English? Since Friday January 6, the country separated between Europe and Asia is no longer called “Turkey” in the United States, but “Türkiye”, reports The Guardian. From now on, it is the second nomenclature that is used on official American documents and during bilateral meetings. The UN had already done the same on May 26, 2022.
“The department will use the spelling you saw today in most official diplomatic and bilateral situations, including public communications,” the US State Department statement read.
Turkey: turkey or country?
Behind this change of name hides a funny reason that does not concern us French people. For good reason, in the language of Shakespeare, the words Turkey and turkey are both said “Turkey”. Problem ? This namesake frankly displeases Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The Turkish president has therefore worked to resolve it with great publicity and commercials to dissociate the image of his country from that of the turkey, specifies journalists. Already in January 2022, the communication department of the Turkish presidency had published a clip of tourists on vacation in Turkey repeating in chorus “Hello Türkiye”. This video is notably broadcast on Turkish Airlines planes.
Ego issue?
The nomenclature of the country internationally is an important subject on the side of Ankara and especially for the nationalists. “One of the greatest services rendered to our country is perhaps the determination and the confidence in it that we have made it gain, explained the Turkish president, in a press point taken up by journalists. The change of official name of our country from Turkey to Türkiye on the international scene is one of the symbols of this new period.”
Faced with Erdoğan’s call, other countries have taken the plunge. The websites of the embassies in Ankara of Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand also write “Türkiye”, reports BFM TV, while the British, Irish and South African embassies still use “Turkey”. .
