Turkey is now ‘Turkiye’

From Balkan Insight

The United Nations on Wednesday said that it had registered “Türkiye” as the new country name for Turkey.

Speaking to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that they received the official letter from Turkish authorities seeking to change the country’s name and the change became effective from the moment the letter was received.

“Türkiye” will now be used in all foreign languages and the country’s full official name will be “Republic of Türkiye”.

The name Turkey has been used by foreigners for centuries to define the core area of the Ottoman Empire and later its successor state, the Republic of Turkey.

The earliest use of the word dates back to the 14 th century, when the Latin term “Turchia/Turquia” meant “the land of Turks”.

In time, the Latin name was transformed into “Türkiye” in Turkish, Turkey in English, “Turkei” in German and “Turquie” in French.

However, the name of the country is also the same as that of the edible bird, indigenous to the Americas. The bird was named “Turkey” because it was introduced to European markets by tradesmen from Constantinople, today’s Istanbul. This confusion has sometimes made Turkey an object of derision.

https://balkaninsight.com/2022/06/02/un-confirms-turkeys-official-name-change-to-turkiye/

(That last part, about the bird introduced into Europe by tradesmen from Constantinople? Ah, no. The name for the bird comes from Columbus’ first voyage and has nothing to do with Muslim Turkey. The explorer’s main navigator was Jewish, perhaps a convert to Catholicism, perhaps not. When indigenous peoples of the new world were describing the turkey, no one in Columbus’ circle could make sense of the description. The Jewish navigator recalled the peacock, “tukum” in Hebrew. “Tukum” eventually became “turkey.”)