Name of Turkey

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The name for the country

autonym Türk, first recorded in the Bugut inscription (as in its plural form türküt) and the Hüis Tolgoi Inscription (as türǖg) of the 6th century, and later, in the Orkhon inscriptions and the Tariat inscriptions
(as both türük and türk) (𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰜) of the 8th century.

Toponymy

The English name of Turkey (from

Chaucer called The Book of the Duchess (c. 1368). The phrase land of Torke is used in the 15th-century Digby Mysteries. Later usages can be found in the Dunbar poems, the 16th century Manipulus Vocabulorum ("Turkie, Tartaria") and Francis Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum (Turky). The modern spelling "Turkey" dates back to at least 1719.[3]

Official name

Turkey adopted its official name, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, known in English as the Republic of Turkey or more commonly known as Turkey, upon the declaration of the republic on 29 October 1923. In 2021, however, via the UN, Turkey changed its spelling to Türkiye.

At a press briefing on 5 January 2023, a

US State Department
spokesman announced that:

the Board on Geographic Names retained both "Turkey" and "Republic of Turkey", the previous spelling, as conventional names, as these are more widely understood by the American public. The department will use the spelling that you saw today [Türkiye] in most of our formal diplomatic and bilateral contexts, including in public communications, but the conventional name can also be used if it is in furtherance of broader public understanding.[4]

Presidential circular on use of Türkiye

On 4 December 2021, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued a presidential circular calling for exports to be labelled as being "Made in Türkiye". The circular also said that in relation to other governmental communications, "necessary sensitivity will be shown on the use of the phrase 'Türkiye' instead of phrases such as 'Turkey,' 'Türkei,' 'Turquie' etc."[5][6] The official reason given in the circular for preferring Türkiye was that it "represents and expresses the culture, civilisation, and values of the Turkish nation in the best way".[7] According to Turkish state broadcaster TRT, it was also to avoid a pejorative association with the bird that shares the same name in the English language.[8][9]

It was reported in January 2022 that the government planned to register Türkiye with the United Nations.[7] According to the state-run TRT World, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu sent letters to the UN and other international organisations on 31 May 2022, requesting that they use Türkiye. The UN agreed and implemented the name change.[10][11][12]

In concordance with Turkish orthography, the preferred all caps spelling of the endonym is TÜRKİYE, written with a dotted capital I.[13]

Turkic sources

The first recorded use of the term "Türk" or "Türük" as an

better source needed
]

Chinese sources

An early form of the same name may be reflected in the form of tie-le (鐵勒) or tu-jue (突厥), a name given by the Chinese to the people living south of the Altai Mountains of Central Asia as early as 177 BC.[16] The Chinese Book of Zhou (7th century) presents an etymology of the name Turk as derived from "helmet" by explaining the name to come from the shape of a mountain on which the Chinese worked in the Altai Mountains.[17]

Greek and Latin sources

Turkicized Mongols
until the mid-19th century.

Arabic sources

The Arabic cognate Turkiyya (

Mamluk Sultanate which covered Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Hejaz and Cyrenaica[24][25][26][a]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The Arabic name for the modern Turkish state is slightly different, Turkiyā (تركيا).

References

  1. ^ Harper, Douglas. "Turkey". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  2. .
  3. ^ "Turkey". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  4. ^ "Department Press Briefing – 5 January 2023". United States Department of State. 6 January 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
  5. ^ "Exports to be labeled 'Made in Türkiye'". Hürriyet Daily News. 6 December 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  6. ^ "Presidential Circular No. 2021/24 on the Use of the Term "Türkiye" as a Brand (in Turkish)" (PDF). Resmî Gazete. 4 December 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  7. ^ a b Soylu, Ragip (17 January 2022). "Turkey to register its new name Türkiye to UN in coming weeks". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  8. ^ "Turkey today, Turkiye tomorrow: UN okays country's request for name change". gulfnews.com. 2 June 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  9. ^ "Why Turkey is now 'Turkiye', and why that matters". TRT World. 13 December 2021. Archived from the original on 14 December 2021. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  10. ^ "UN to use 'Türkiye' instead of 'Turkey' after Ankara's request". TRT World. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  11. ^ "Turkey officially changes name at UN to 'Turkiye'". DAWN.COM. AFP. 3 June 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  12. ^ "Turkey wants to be called Türkiye in rebranding move". BBC News. 2 June 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  13. ^ "Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Foreign Affairs". Retrieved 11 September 2023.
  14. , 9783933847003.
  15. ^ 卷099 列傳第八十七突厥鐵勒- 新亞研究所- 典籍資料庫 Archived 21 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Harper, Douglas. "Turk". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 7 December 2006.
  17. ^ Sinor, Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Page 295
  18. ^ Leiser 2005, 837
  19. Siret River (or even the Eastern Carpathian Mountains
    ), and is four days distant from Tourkia (i.e. Hungary)."
  20. . Retrieved 9 February 2013.
  21. . Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  22. ^ Öztürk, Özhan (2011). "Pontus: Antik Çağ'dan Günümüze Karadeniz'in Etnik ve Siyasi Tarihi". Ankara: Genesis Yayınları. p. 364. Archived from the original on 15 September 2012. ... Greek term Tourkoi first used for the Khazars in 568 AD. In addition in "De Administrando Imperio" Hungarians call Tourkoi too once known as Sabiroi ...
  23. ^ Jennings, "The Journeyer", 309
  24. .
  25. ^ The Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume 1, (1998) p. 250
  26. .