The country is already called Türkiye in the halls of the United Nations (UN), which has agreed to recognize the change at the request of the Turkish government. Turkey’s name rebranding campaign began in December.
“The process we started under our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is nearing completion,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Cavusoglu said that Turkey wants to be called Türkiye.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told CNN that the UN accepted the change and it went into effect as soon as they received the request and were satisfied that the document was legal.
The move is seen as part of Ankara’s effort to rebrand the country and differentiate it from the poultry of the same name and the negative connotations associated with the word’s meaning.
The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pushing for the internationally recognized name Turkey to be changed to Türkiye because it is written and pronounced in Turkish. The country was renamed Turkey in 1923 after independence.
In December 2021, Erdogan ordered the use of the word “Türkiye” to better represent Turkish culture and values, including requesting “Made in Türkiye” instead of “Made in Turkey” on exported products. Turkish ministries have also started using Türkiye in official documents. The government released a commercial this year as part of an effort to change the name to English. The video shows tourists from all over the world saying “Hello Türkiye” to famous places. The Turkish Presidential Public Affairs Office said it launched a campaign “to promote better use of Türkiye as the country’s national and international name on international platforms.”
It is unclear whether a name with a letter that does not exist in the English alphabet will be widely used abroad. In 2016, the Czech Republic officially registered its short name Czech Republic, and although some international institutions use it, many still refer to the country by the longer name.