General

A few days ago, a spokesman for the UN Secretary-General said that the UN had officially approved Turkey's request to change its foreign name from Turkey to Türkiye, which will take effect from the moment it received a letter from Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu.

The short name of the Republic of Turkey has now been changed from Turkey to Türkiye, but the country's position in the alphabetical order has not changed.

On December 4 last year, Erdogan issued a presidential decree requesting the name change. Erdogan believes the new name "Türkiye" can "best represent the culture, civilization and values of the Turkish nation". According to the report, since December last year, Turkey has officially used the new name "Türkiye" in its foreign relations and has submitted a request to the United Nations to change the name. But since the letter "ü" in the new name is not Latin, the United Nations has had a long discussion about its writing.

"Türkiye" is Turkish, the original Latin alphabet of Turkey, "Turkey", has the meaning of "turkey" in English, and is even defined as "something that fails badly" or "stupid person" in the Cambridge dictionary. According to the report, this is also one of the reasons why Turkey has launched a name-correcting operation.

Regarding the name change of Turkey, a reporter from the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) named Meryem Atlas believes that "Türkiye" is a very old name, which is meaningful to the Turks and can show Turkey's Sovereign and unique civilization. At the same time, because "Turkey is often called a turkey by haters, the name change has salvaged its international reputation."

Atlas also believes that the commitment to changing the name also shows the Erdogan government's efforts to maintain Turkey's international reputation, "Turkey has been called this name (turkey) for many years, even before the Ottoman Turkish Empire, it was called this way. name, but no government wanted to change it in the past."

As for why Turkey is called "turkey", "Eye of the Middle East" explained that Europeans used to like to eat a bird, which originally came from Guinea in West Africa, but in the 16th century, because it was often traded through merchants from Istanbul , Over time, this bird was called "Turkey coq". Later, the British went to the New World of America and found a larger American woodland poultry near the Massachusetts Bay, which was also called "Turkey coq". ", and later Turkey, as a country, was associated with "turkey".

Some international agencies, national organizations or companies exporting goods will also be required to use the Türkiye name or indicate the country of origin in their correspondence.

2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkey, and a new round of general elections will also be ushered in. It is reported that Turkey's current economic situation is severe, and the support rate of the ruling Justice and Development Party led by Erdogan is relatively low.