Turkey Adopted a New Spelling to Be Recognized as It Is Spelled and Spoken in Turkish

As the news headlines do not accurately reflect the content of the circulated claim, Misbar looked into it and found it to be a commotion. Turkey did not, as stated, change its name in the United Nations, but instead adopted its Turkish name. This was accomplished by changing the spelling and pronunciation in international forums to Türkiye (tur-key-yay), as it is pronounced in Turkish and Arabic, rather than how it is pronounced in Turkey.

Çavuşoğlu's Request 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said in a tweet on his official Twitter account last Tuesday, May 31, that he sent a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres requesting that Turkey's name be registered in the organization's approved foreign languages, which uses Turkish characters, particularly umlaut letters to be written as "Türkiye."

Stephane Dujarric, the UN Secretary-spokesman, General's confirmed to the Turkish Anadolu Agency that the Organization's Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, had received a letter favuşolu, in which he requested the use of the "Türkiye" spelling instead of the usual spelling "Turkey" in the international arena. According to the Turkish Anadolu Agency, he also stated that the country's name was changed from one spelling to another, which took effect as soon as the message was received.

Turkey Changed the Pronunciation of its Name

The goal of changing the international pronunciation of Turkey's name, according to an article published on the official Turkish TV website last December, was to avoid confusion between the name "Turkey" in this form and words with other meanings in the English language.

According to the article, when you type "Turkey" into Google, you get a confusing set of images, articles, and dictionary definitions that combine the country's Turkey and the Miliaguri bird, also known as the turkey, noting that the word "Turkey" in its English pronunciation in the Cambridge Dictionary is defined as "something that fails badly" and "stupid or silly person."

Since its declaration of independence in 1923, Turkey has used the Turkish spelling in international forums. Last December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a statement calling for the use of the name "Türkiye" in its Turkish pronunciation throughout the world as "the best representative and expression of the people's culture, civilization, and values." Following Erdogan's call, Turkiye began to change the country's brand. 

Based on the findings, the Misbar team confirms that the claim is a commotion as the headlines do not reflect the actual content.