“The issue is not linguistic, but political,” Bayram Balchi, director of the French Institute of Oriental Studies, told Le Figaro regarding the name change requested by Turkey.
In a publication under the title “Turkey no longer wants to be called a turkey”, the French newspaper Le Figaro refers to change of the official international name of Turkey from “Turkey” (turkey in English) to “Türkiye”, approved by the UN on 2 June.
“The issue is not linguistic, but political“, Bayram Balchi, director of the French Institute of Oriental Studies, states in the newspaper, while linguist Sonel Bosnali, professor of Turkish language at the University of Kazakhstan, attributes the language “lifting” to the desire of the Turkish president to make a sensation on the international stage, but also in his nationalist tendencies.
The newspaper points out that “while Erdogan is active on all fronts (imminent military intervention in Syria, attempted mediation in the war in Ukraine, renewed tension with Greece), the change coincides with preparations for the centenary of the Turkish Republic, which will be celebrated in June 2023”.
With a year to go until the presidential election, it is also, according to the French newspaper, “an ideal opportunity to strengthen Turkish national sentiment at a time when the country is going through an unprecedented economic crisis.”
According to the newspaper’s correspondent in Turkey, in the past weeks the Turkish authorities “launched a huge communication campaign called ‘Hello Türkiye’, while they are already working to replace the words ‘made in Turkey’ with the words ‘made in Türkiye'” in the exported products. The new name also appears on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As for Turkish Airlines, a pillar of Turkish “soft power”, Erdogan announced that he wants to rename it to its Turkish name, Türkiye Hava Yollari.
But by playing with words, Erdogan risks losing his Turkishness, the response then comments. “The paradox is that from an etymological point of view, the word Türkiye is not Turkish,” says Bosnali, recalling that the suffix “iye” comes from Arabic. The article also states that the comical paradox is that the English word “Turkey” comes from Turkey and not the other way around. Which, according to the response, inspired many netizens to accuse the Turkish president of ‘unnecessary cacophony’, while some others have already started a campaign demanding that Turkey not be renamed, but that the turkey be renamed “Türkiye”.
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