Why the nation of Turkey is rebranding itself as Türkiye on the global stage

Cultures · Published 9 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: For centuries, the English name for Turkey has been synonymous with the country, yet a recent push by the Turkish government has shifted international diplomacy toward the endonym Türkiye. This transition aims to better reflect national identity while distancing the state from the pejorative associations of the English bird name.

The name Turkey, derived from the Medieval Latin Turchia and Medieval Greek Tourkia, has long served as the conventional English designation for the land of the Turks. Its roots stretch back to the 6th century, appearing in inscriptions like the Bugut and Hüis Tolgoi as the autonym Türk. While early Byzantine scholars like Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus used Tourkia to describe regions as diverse as Hungary and the Khazar Khaganate, the term eventually became tethered to Anatolia following the Seljuk expansion and the rise of the Ottoman Empire.

In December 2021, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued a circular mandating that exports be labeled as Made in Türkiye, signaling a broader effort to align governmental communications with the nation's own cultural values. This initiative culminated in May 2022, when Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu formally requested that the United Nations and other international bodies adopt the spelling Türkiye. The UN agreed to the change, and by 2023, the United States State Department began utilizing the new spelling in formal diplomatic contexts, though it retains Turkey for broader public understanding.

The transition is more than a simple orthographic adjustment; it is a deliberate act of national branding. By emphasizing the endonym, the government seeks to avoid the linguistic overlap with the bird known as a turkey in English, which carries negative connotations. Today, while Türkiye is the official preference for state communications, the legacy of the name Turkey persists in common usage, reflecting a complex interplay between historical nomenclature, modern diplomacy, and the evolving self-perception of the Turkish state.

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