The United Nations has agreed to Turkey's wish to be called Türkiye. "The change is immediate," Stephane Dujarric, the UN chief's spokesperson, told AFP.
"The process we started under the leadership of our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in order to increase our country's brand value is to be finalized," Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Cavusoglu wrote: "I would like to inform you that, in line with the Presidential Circular ... dated December 2, 2021, on the use of the word 'Türkiye' in foreign languages and the subsequent branding strategy, the Government of the Republic of Turkiye, henceforth will start using 'Türkiye' to replace the words such as 'Turkey,' 'Turkei' and 'Turquie' that have been used in the past to refer to the 'Republic of Turkiye,” a CNN report reads.
The request was accepted as soon as it was made, after ensuring that the document was legitimate. "Countries are free to choose the way they want to be named. It doesn't happen every day but it's not unusual that countries change their names," Dujarric said.
The name would be pronounced as tur-key-yay-- as it is spelt and pronounced in Turkish. The country called itself Türkiye in 1923 after it declared independence, a Guardian report reads.