The country is now called “Turkey” in the halls of the United Nations, which agreed to recognize the change on Wednesday after a request from the Turkish government. The rebranding campaign to Turkey began in December.
In the letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Cavusoglu wrote: “I would like to inform you that in line with the Presidential Circular… of December 2, 2021, on the use of the word ‘Turkey’ in foreign languages and subsequent branding strategy, the Government of the Republic of Turkey From now on you will start using ‘Türkiye’ to replace words like ‘Turkey’, ‘Turkei’ and ‘Turquie’ that were used in the past to refer to the Republic of Turkey.
The UN spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told CNN on Thursday that the UN had accepted the change, and it took effect once the request was received and the document was verified as legitimate, which was on Wednesday.
“It’s not an issue, we don’t have to accept or not,” Dujarric said. “Countries are free to choose how they want to be named. It doesn’t happen every day but it is not unusual for countries to change their names.”
“One of the things that comes to my head is Côte d’Ivoire, which was referred to in English as Ivory Coast and they called Ivory Coast,” the spokesperson added.
Cavusoglu told the state-run Anadolu Agency on Wednesday that by working with the Turkish Communications Directorate, which is under the President’s Office, the government was able to successfully lay the groundwork for the rebranding. “We have made it possible for the United Nations, other international organizations and countries to see this change by using ‘Turkish’,” he said.
Turkey Communications Director Fahrettin Altun posted a promotional video on Twitter on Wednesday with the caption: #HelloTürkiye.
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