In order to strengthen the brand of the country now formerly known by its anglicized name of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a circular which declared that in all kinds of activities and correspondence with all international institutions and organizations — especially other states — the name Türkiye will officially be used.
The Country of Turkey Changed Its Name. Somewhat.
The current president of the country had the circular issued on Saturday, December 4, 2021, according to a message which was posted at the official Twitter membership account of Fahrettin Altun, who is the director of communications for the nation of Türkiye and lauded the decision.
https://twitter.com/fahrettinaltun/status/1466889744902668293
The name Türkiye best represents and expresses the culture, civilization, and values of the Turkish nation — for example, products which are manufactured in the country and exported to other countries will sport the phrase Made in Türkiye.
Initially referred by Europeans as the Ottoman state, Türkiye eventually became known as Turkey — similar to that famous fowl which is prevalent in North America and feasted upon during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other holidays in the United States.
Turkey has also been known in recent decades as a slang word for someone who is a silly or stupid person — something which is not necessarily flattering to the identity and brand of a country.
How to Pronounce Türkiye
The Turkish pronunciation of Türkiye is somewhat similar to the English pronunciation of Turkey; but with an extra syllable in the end: Tur-KEE-yeh, as demonstrated in this video.
Türkiye is Not The Only Country To Have Its Name Changed in Recent Years
An entire industry has arisen in recent years which caters to countries and cities who seek to promote themselves on an international level — as well as take charge of how everyone else in the world sees them and their unique identities. “A particularly skilled copywriter sold Moses on Israel by calling it ‘The Promised Land’; Erik the Red named a large block of ice ‘Greenland’ in the hope of tempting more settlers there; Milton Glaser slapped ‘I♥NY’ upon a trillion T-shirts; a Las Vegas ad agency cooked up ‘What happens here, stays here’, the allure of sin encapsulated”, according to this article which was written by Samanth Subramanian for The Guardian. “To the Grands, this is all mere sloganeering. They regard their line of work as a kind of psychology: counselling for countries, therapy for towns. Look inward, discover yourself, find your place in the world.”
One recent example is that the Netherlands dropped the name Holland in a bid to simplify its image to the world — even though Holland is technically a geographical region and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands and not simply another name for the entire country itself — and an official announcement from the government in 2020 proclaimed that communications and advertising would only be under the name the Netherlands in the future.
Due to a political dispute with Greece which lasted at least 28 years, the name of the country in Europe which is now formerly known as Macedonia was changed to The Republic of North Macedonia on Tuesday, February 12, 2019.
At a double celebration which occurred at Mavuso Sports Centre on Thursday, April 19, 2018 to commemorate 50 years since both the independence of his country from being a British protectorate and the day he was born, Mswati III — who is the king of Swaziland and head of the Swazi royal family — declared that the new name for Swaziland is now the Kingdom of Eswatini. The main reason for the name change is to avoid what had apparently been constant confusion between Swaziland and Switzerland by people around the world.
The name of the country which is formerly known as Persia was changed to Iran in 1935, as the word Iran means Persian in Farsi; and at the time, the sentiment was that that the country should call itself with the name which was used by its citizens and not by a name which was seemingly imposed from outside of the country — primarily by people of Western nations.
Final Boarding Call
Although I came close to visiting it several times in my life, I have never been to Türkiye — and I hope to visit that country one day in the future.
I can personally understand the reasons for the change of name from Turkey to Türkiye. Now, if only Hungry would change its name to Hungary; Grease would change its name to Greece; and China would change its name to China so that no one will ever say that they are hungry for turkey in grease on china.
The name of the United States of America is not in jeopardy of being changed at this time or in the foreseeable future. However, an article in The New York Times presented several designs on Tuesday, September 28, 2021 which could be considered as potentially replacing the design of the current flag of 50 stars and 13 stripes — an idea which I do not support.
No longer will this delicious fowl come to mind when mentioning the name of the country which used to be known as Turkey — if government officials have it their way. Photograph ©2016 by Brian Cohen.
