Alwaght- The United Nations has changed name of the Republic of Turkey at the world body from “Turkey” to “Türkiye”, following a request from the country for the change.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that a letter had been received on Wednesday from the Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu addressed to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, requesting the use of “Türkiye” instead of “Turkey” for all affairs.
The spokesman said the country name change became effective from the moment the letter was received.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu posted a photo of himself signing a letter asking UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to officially use the name ‘Türkiye’, which is what the country is called in Turkish.
The initiative spearheaded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is meant to “upgrade the brand value of our country,” Cavusoglu said.
Last year, Erdogan’s office issued a statement saying the name “Türkiye represents and expresses the culture, civilization and values of the Turkish nation in the best way.”
Turkish public broadcaster TRT World complained that the Cambridge Dictionary defines the word ‘turkey’ as “something that fails badly,” or “a stupid or silly person,” among other things.
In 2018, the Kingdom of Swaziland, a small country in southern Africa, changed its name to Eswatini. King Mswati III explained the move by saying that African nations are reverting “to their ancient names before they were colonized.”
In 2019, the country provisionally known in the UN as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), officially became North Macedonia. The decision ended the decades-long naming dispute with neighboring Greece.
