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제 15 호 Türkiye: Sudden, Yet Fresh New Nametag Fixed for Turkey

  • 작성일 2022-08-31
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Kicker : WORLD


Türkiye: Sudden, Yet Fresh New Nametag Fixed for Turkey

Unclear Intention Hiding Beneath the Sudden Name Swap



Do-Hyuk Kim, Reporter

ndapple0921@gmail.com


ANALYSIS - Significance of Turkiye in a new era


  The word ‘turkey’ is widely known as a kind of species of birds, or a typical menu that Americans mostly consume every year when Thanksgiving comes back. Having that word as a name for one country might make toddlers learning names of global nations laugh, but Turkey was known as a ‘Turkey’ since when modern Turkey was established in 1923. A century-long name ‘Turkey’ suddenly disappeared into history, because Turkey now is officially called as ‘Türkiye.’ Approval of the United Nations on June 1st, 2022 confirmed Turkey’s new name. Quite foreign, isn’t it? Changing the name of a nation scarcely appears in pages of history books, and Türkiye has just left a new bookmark to history of the world. From now on, we should now be acquainted with Türkiye’s new name. What event derived this unexpected surprise from Türkiye to come along? Since changing the name of a country is such a massive event in terms of a nation’s global image, awareness and economics, it might take years to become realized and could face controversies. But Turkey’s switch to Türkiye felt like it was done in quite a hurry. Let’s find about their true intentions behind this historical event.



Korea Also Has the History of Name Change

  Before diving into specific Türkiye’s situation, we need to think about what changing the name of a country can deliver to a nation in terms of economics and a nation’s social status within the international society. Take our country’s name, ‘Korea’ for example. South Korea’s name originated from ‘Corea’, which was used over previous centuries and was widely known as a derivative of Core, that started life as a representative of the Goryeo Dynasty. Then passing through both the time of enlightenment and Japanese occupation, the name Corea has changed into Korea. That’s mainly because Americans often used ‘Korea’ when making reference to both nations of the Korean peninsula. Even though the name change to Korea was not our intention, the new letter ‘K’ in front of our country’s name is actively working as a symbol much later on. The highly popular K-POP and other fields that South Korea is ahead of the game are all tied as K-something to all other global populations. That made an entirely new culture to foreigners which from this moment on, when the country’s name and the letter ‘K’ are associated, most people recall South Korea inside their heads. Our country’s example clearly stresses the importance of the name of one nation, which can influence further more into a country’s status among global citizens’ awareness.


Now the Name Türkiye Is Officially Confirmed

  Then, let’s come back to our topic, Türkiye. The previous name ‘Turkey’ meant a roasted, big chicken that is used to celebrate a holiday, and no such thing impressed others worldwide. Turkey was an English expression of the ‘land of Turkish people’, and people of Türkiye say that they have a long history of referring to their nation as Türkiye, instead of Turkey. Türkiye is mostly consisted of Turks, as statistics say they are around three-fourth of all Türkiye’s population. So basically, Türkiye means country of Turks – which is not that surprising since when you break down the word ‘Türkiye’, it is basically a combination of suffix ‘-iye’ and Turks, resulting in ‘land of Turks’ in its complete form. The entire episode shows that the process or history of the country’s name change to Türkiye is the other way around of our country. Türkiye tried to retrieve their original spirit by reverting the name how they have read ever since, throwing away the English name that foreigners had given. That is completely opposite of South Korea.



Appearance of ‘Türkiye’ IsErdoğan’s Bid for Victory

  If you consider Türkiye’s name change as a pure intention to pursue their own identity, that would be fine. But there are some reasons why it had to happen now. To find out, we need to take a look at Türkiye’s government. The current president of Türkiye is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and he was forced into a corner because of dropping approval rate of himself and the party he belongs to. The AK Party that President Erdoğan is included in recorded over forty percent of approval rate when Erdoğan was elected four years ago in 2018, but currently it has dropped to near thirty percent. Skyrocketing prices of necessities because of inflation caused by the aftermath of COVID-19 and the Ukrainian War are making things even worse, driving Erdoğan to pull up a tactic that would flip this atmosphere.

The name change to Türkiye is what Erdoğan’s government came up with. They expected that their trickery would persuade nationalists to give support back to Erdoğan’s government and drag off regular citizen’s attentions from the economic crisis. Sounds like cheating, and the cheat did not work. People of Türkiye are currently running out of time to consider political issues, because inflation graph of Türkiye is too steep for them to cope with. Most major media is reporting stagflation has arrived in their country every evening in their news, but Türkiye’s one is out of the world severe – recorded over seventy percent. Some of Türkiye’s experts and official statement from Erdoğan’s government refused the proposal made from the West of Atlantic claiming Turkish government’s espionage over their citizens to revert their commanding status, arguing that it was just an attempt to break down long-lived connection with a bird species, but who could possibly guess the real intention behind this decision?

Interestingly, though, Erdoğan revived his approval rate partially because of his recent signature on memorandum of understanding that involved Sweden and Finland, instead of enthusiastic response shown from Turkish citizens derived from the name swap to Türkiye. The long-awaited entrance of Sweden and Finland into NATO gave a chance to Erdoğan to bolster his suppressive attitude toward the Kurds, which is a minority group that often spell trouble for the Turks. Swedes can no longer give support to Kurds because of this deal, and Erdoğan received a warm welcome from nationalists and Turkish extremists. So Erdoğan achieved his goal by an unexpected chance, but it is pretty certain that the name change to Türkiye did not make its mark that much. Joe Biden made a statement congratulating this agreement after this big deal was achieved, but there was a small trap that would upset Erdoğan. Instead of calling Türkiye as Türkiye, the paper from the White House stubbornly referred to them as ‘Turkey.’ This purposeful mistake quietly implied that the United States was annoyed by Erdoğan’s attempt to escape from English’s influence, but the official steps of changing the name are already done. I think this event shows that Erdoğan’s confidential operation has a long way to be established worldwide.


  South Korea has a long history of an intimate relationship with Türkiye. Türkiye’s support during the Korean War helped South Korea to be established and defend from the attack from the Communists. This close relationship constructed by noble sacrifices continues until today. Even after changing their name to Türkiye, we should soldier on, since it might be the time to further reinforce this friendliness thanks to Americans that are not very happy about this event. Let’s remind ourselves that Turkey is now Türkiye and call their proper name from this moment on. Because calling their real name frequently is the fundamental process in building a proper relationship. Oh, and Türkiye and us both share a history of changing our names, too.


Sources: https://www.pressian.com/pages/articles/89987

           https://www.sedaily.com/NewsView/26746L0EFO

           https://news.mt.co.kr/mtview.php?no=2022063010512035468

           http://www.ggilbo.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=921772

           https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/29/middleeast/turkey-nato-erdogan-mime-intl/index.html

           https://cdnuploads.aa.com.tr/uploads/Contents/2022/03/21/thumbs_b_c_87105e5cc481e6aff0d88dc2a60217a8.jpg?v=125039 (Image 1)

https://balkaninsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/h_57202283-scaled-e1634042137822.jpg (Image 2)