All you need to know about Turkey’s rebranding

THE United Nations has agreed to change Turkey’s official name to Turkiye.

The popular holiday destination has changed the spelling and pronunciation of its name – but why and how do we say it?

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Why has Turkey rebranded to Turkiye?

Turkey’s move away from the Anglicised spelling makes it the latest country to change its name – after the Dutch government scrapped the nickname of Holland in 2020.

The Turkish government have been campaigning for this rebrand since December, 2021 – after launching the ‘Hello Turkiye’ campaign to announce the decision.

The rebrand of Turkey hopes to dissociate itself from the well known festive bird, which genuinely annoys the Turkish president and some negative connotations that are associated with it.

The Cambridge English Dictionary’s definition of the word ‘Turkey’ holds the meaning of ”something that fails” or is ”a stupid or silly person”.

According to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the name change ”will best represent and express the culture, civilisation and the values.”

How do you pronounce Turkiye?

Local residents have been pronouncing their country as Turkiye since 1923, after its declaration of Independence.

Following annunciation guidelines, the pronunciation of the country’s name is “Tur-key-yay” – as it is spelled and pronounced in Turkish.

When will the change to Turkiye take effect?

The country itself has already made the switch.

But the change was made with immediate effect once the letter made by Ankara was received – meaning The United Nations will now address the country by its new name.

The letter sent by the Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said: “Together with our Directorate of Communications, we have been successful in preparing a good ground for this.”

Cavusoglu told Anadolu Agency: “We have made it possible for the UN and other international organisations, countries to see this change to using ‘Türkiye’.”

Other international organisations are also expected to be asked to make the name change.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also instructed that ”Made in Turkiye” is to be used instead of ”Made in Turkey” when labelling export products.