Turkey changes its name after tiring of people getting it confused with the bird

Turkey has decided to change its name this year in order to stop people from associating it with the bird that's popular during the festive season as well as the negative connotations linked to the word.

In June this year, the United Nations accepted a formal request by the country's government to rebrand as "Türkiye," pronounced "toor-kee-yeh."

Türkiye was first used after the country's declaration of independence in 1923, so this is the way Turks already spell and pronounce the name of their country but the anglicised version "Turkey" is also used too.

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"Together with our Directorate of Communications, we have been successful in preparing a good ground for this," Türkiye's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu wrote in the letter request.

The push for the name change began last December where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan requested people in every language to refer to the country as "Türkiye."

"We have made it possible for the UN and other international organisations, countries to see this change to using Türkiye," Erdogan said at the time.

"Türkiye is the best representation and expression of the Turkish people's culture, civilisation, and values.”

Türkiye’s English-language state broadcaster TRT World has made the change, and say Turks prefer "Türkiye" in “keeping with the country’s aims of determining how others should identify it.”

(Though there are some occasional slip-ups from journalists who say Turkey while adjusting to the change).

The broadcaster explained in an article the decision to use Türkiye, as "Turkey" conjures up "a muddled set of images, articles, and dictionary definitions that conflate the country with Meleagris – otherwise known as the turkey, a large bird native to North America – which is famous for being served on Christmas menus or Thanksgiving dinners."

It also noted another unfortunate meaning for the word "turkey."

“Flip through the Cambridge Dictionary and 'turkey' is defined as 'something that fails badly' or 'a stupid or silly person,' the article read.

Exported products will also be branded with "Made in Türkiye," while there's a tourism campaign surrounding the country's new pronunciation where an advert has tourists from across the globe say "Hello Türkiye."

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