By Janet Ekstract
ISTANBUL-On Thursday, the U.S. State Department announced that for the most part, it will begin using the name Turkiye for the nation that has otherwise been known as Turkey by most of the world. The department is complying with a request from the Turkish embassy to use the spelling of Turkiye rather than Turkey since Turkish officials do not want their country’s name associated with the widely used name of a poultry product. According to state department spokesman Ned Price: “The Turkish embassy did request that we use this spelling in our communications.” Price added: “The department will use the spelling that you saw today in most of our formal diplomatic and bilateral contexts, including in public communications.” He did also mention that as a country, the name “Turkey” is not forbidden when “in furtherance of broader public understanding” since he said that more Americans know the country by this name.
According to official reports, the Pentagon has been using the term Turkiye since an official phone call in August 2022 between NATO defense chiefs. Turkish President Erdogan ordered the name change of his nation to Turkiye in 2021 in languages that use Latin script. It is understood that Turks prefer their country name not be associated with the bird species known as Turkey. It was also confusing to find information on Google using the previous name rather than that of Turkiye. Other English-speaking nations that use the term Turkiye on their embassy websites include Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand while British, Irish and South African embassies still use Turkey.
