Turkey is located in Western Asia and Southern Europe. It was established in 1923 following the Turkish War of Independence that led to the abolition of the Ottoman sultanate.
Turkish President Mr Erdoğan has pushed for a re-branding campaign to boost the country's international standing, under which the name of the country has been changed to the Republic of Türkiye. The United Nations has also agreed to the formal request regarding the name change. Domestically, citizens already referred to the country as Türkiye.
The reason given for the name change is that Turkey was a westernized and anglicized name that didn't reflect old roots. Whereas Türkiye expresses Turkish people's culture, civilization and values in the truest sense.
All exported products will have a "Made in Türkiye" label. A tourism campaign was also launched with the tagline "Hello Türkiye".
This rebranding ends the two unwelcome associations of the country's name. First with the Turkey bird that is slaughtered for flesh consumption. And second, the Cambridge English dictionary meaning of turkey as 'stupid and completely unsuccessful'.
As per the Critics, it is a politically motivated move to reach out to the nationalist voters. It is just a nationalist-populist measure to distract the public from concrete pressing problems amid an economic crisis.
Some other examples where countries have changed their names:
Persia - Iran
Siam - Thailand
Ceylon - Sri Lanka
Holland - Netherlands
Macedonia - North Macedonia
Swaziland - Eswatini
Rhodesia - Zimbabwe
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