Name of Turkey#Greek and Latin sources

The English name of Turkey (from Medieval Latin Turchia{{OEtymD|Turkey|accessdate=14 June 2022}}/Turquia{{cite book|title=Passage to Ararat|author= Michael J. Arlen|publisher=MacMillan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-UahAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA159|page=159|year=2006|isbn= 9780374530129}}) means "land of the Turks". Middle English usage of Turkye is attested to in an early work by 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.{{Cite OED|Turkey}}

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 spokesperson 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.{{cite web | title=Department Press Briefing – 5 January 2023 | website=United States Department of State | date=6 January 2023 | url= https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-january-5-2023/ | access-date=24 May 2023}}

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."{{cite news|title= Exports to be labeled 'Made in Türkiye' |url= https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/exports-to-be-labeled-made-in-turkiye-169885 |newspaper= Hürriyet Daily News |date=6 December 2021 |accessdate=11 April 2022}}{{cite news |title= Presidential Circular No. 2021/24 on the Use of the Term "Türkiye" as a Brand (in Turkish) |url= https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2021/12/20211204-5.pdf |newspaper= Resmî Gazete |date=4 December 2021 |accessdate=11 April 2022}} 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". 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.{{Cite web |title=Turkey today, Turkiye tomorrow: UN okays country's request for name change |url=https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/turkey-today-turkiye-tomorrow--un-okays-countrys-request-for-name-change-1.1654197378860 |access-date=3 June 2022 |website=gulfnews.com |date=2 June 2022 |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=13 December 2021 |title=Why Turkey is now 'Turkiye', and why that matters |language=en |newspaper=TRT World |url=https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/why-turkey-is-now-turkiye-and-why-that-matters-52602 |access-date=3 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211214000443/https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/why-turkey-is-now-turkiye-and-why-that-matters-52602 |archive-date=14 December 2021}}

It was reported in January 2022 that the government planned to register Türkiye with the United Nations.{{cite news |first=Ragip |last=Soylu|title= Turkey to register its new name Türkiye to UN in coming weeks |url= https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-turkiye-new-name-register-un-weeks |newspaper=Middle East Eye|date= 17 January 2022|accessdate=11 April 2022}} 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.{{Cite web |title=UN to use 'Türkiye' instead of 'Turkey' after Ankara's request |url= https://www.trtworld.com/turkey/un-to-use-türkiye-instead-of-turkey-after-ankara-s-request-57633 |access-date=3 June 2022 |website=TRT World |language=en}}{{Cite web |agency=AFP |date=3 June 2022 |title=Turkey officially changes name at UN to 'Turkiye' |url= https://www.dawn.com/news/1692912 |access-date=3 June 2022 |website=DAWN.COM |language=en}}{{cite news|date=2 June 2022 |title=Turkey wants to be called Türkiye in rebranding move|language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61671913 |access-date=3 June 2022}}

In concordance with Turkish orthography, the preferred all caps spelling of the endonym is {{lang|tr|TÜRKİYE}}, written with a dotted capital I.{{cite web |title=Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Foreign Affairs |url=https://www.mfa.gov.tr/default.en.mfa |access-date=11 September 2023}}

The first recorded use of the term "Türk" or "Türük" as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks (Celestial Turks) of Central Asia (c. AD 735).Scharlipp, Wolfgang (2000). An Introduction to the Old Turkish Runic Inscriptions. Verlag auf dem Ruffel., Engelschoff. {{ISBN|3-933847-00-1}}, 9783933847003. The Turkic self-designation Türk is attested to reference to the Göktürks in the 6th century AD. A letter by Ishbara Qaghan to Emperor Wen of Sui in 585 described him as "the Great Turk Khan."[http://newasia.proj.hkedcity.net/resources/25/beishi/index.phtml?section_num=099 卷099 列傳第八十七突厥鐵勒- 新亞研究所- 典籍資料庫] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221113517/http://newasia.proj.hkedcity.net/resources/25/beishi/index.phtml?section_num=099 |date=21 February 2014 }}{{better source needed|date=August 2018}}

{{See also|Tiele people#Tiele|Tujue#Etymology}}

An early form of the same name may be reflected in the form of tie-le ({{lang|zh|鐵勒}}) or tu-jue ({{lang|zh|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.{{OEtymD|Turk|accessdate=7 December 2006}} 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.Sinor, Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Page 295

Pomponius Mela refers to the "Turcae" in the forests north of the Sea of Azov, and Pliny the Elder lists the "Tyrcae" among the people of the same area.{{Harvnb|Leiser|2005|loc=837}} The Greek name, Tourkia ({{langx|el|Τουρκία}}) was used by the Byzantine emperor and scholar Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in his book De Administrando Imperio,{{Cite book|edition=New, revised|publisher=Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies|isbn=0-88402-021-5|last=Jenkins|first=Romilly James Heald|title=De Administrando Imperio by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus|location=Washington, D.C.|series=Corpus fontium historiae Byzantinae|year=1967|page=65|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3al15wpFWiMC|access-date=28 August 2013}} According to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, writing in his De Administrando Imperio ({{circa}} 950 AD) "Patzinakia, the Pecheneg realm, stretches west as far as the Siret River (or even the Eastern Carpathian Mountains), and is four days distant from Tourkia (i.e. Hungary)."{{cite book|author1=Günter Prinzing|author2=Maciej Salamon|title=Byzanz und Ostmitteleuropa 950–1453: Beiträge zu einer table-ronde des XIX. International Congress of Byzantine Studies, Copenhagen 1996|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uZDgivj7_RAC&pg=PA46|access-date=9 February 2013|year=1999|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-04146-1|page=46}} though in his use, "Turks" always referred to Magyars{{cite book|author=Henry Hoyle Howorth|title=History of the Mongols from the 9th to the 19th Century: The So-called Tartars of Russia and Central Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hFc4mwsHZ7IC&pg=PA3|access-date=15 June 2013|year=2008|publisher=Cosimo, Inc.|isbn=978-1-60520-134-4|page=3}} and Hungary was called Tourkia (Land of the Turks). Similarly, the medieval Khazar Khaganate, a Turkic state on the northern shores of the Black and Caspian seas, was also referred to as Tourkia in Byzantine sources.{{cite web|last=Öztürk|first=Özhan|title=Pontus: Antik Çağ'dan Günümüze Karadeniz'in Etnik ve Siyasi Tarihi|url=http://www.karalahana.com/makaleler/kitap/pontus-antik-cagdan-gunumuze-karadeniz-etnik-siyasi-tarihi.htm|publisher=Genesis Yayınları|author-link=Özhan Öztürk|location=Ankara|page=364|year=2011|quote=... 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 ...|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915062836/http://www.karalahana.com/makaleler/kitap/pontus-antik-cagdan-gunumuze-karadeniz-etnik-siyasi-tarihi.htm|archive-date=15 September 2012}} However, the Byzantines later began using this name to define the Seljuk-controlled parts of Anatolia in the centuries that followed the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. The medieval Greek and Latin terms did not designate the same geographic area now known as Turkey. Instead, they were mostly synonymous with Tartary, a term including Khazaria and the other khaganates of the Central Asian steppe, until the appearance of the Seljuks and the rise of the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century, reflecting the progress of the Turkic expansion. However, the term Tartary itself was a misnomerJennings, "The Journeyer", 309 which was constantly used by the Europeans to refer the realms of Turkic peoples and Turkicized Mongols until the mid-19th century.

The Arabic cognate Turkiyya ({{langx|ar|تركية}}) in the form ad-Dawlat at-Turkiyya ({{langx|ar|الدولة التركية}} "State of the Turks" or "the Turkish State") was historically used as an official name for the medieval Mamluk Sultanate which covered Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Hejaz and Cyrenaica.{{cite book|last1=Nicolle|first1=David|title=Mamluk 'Askari 1250–1517|date=2014|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=9781782009290|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TLZ-BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA52|page=4}}The Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume 1, (1998) p. 250{{Cite journal|title = The Term Mamlūk and Slave Status during the Mamluk Sultanate|last = Yosef|first = Koby|journal = Al-Qanṭara|doi = 10.3989/alqantara.2013.001|volume = 34|issue = 1|publisher = Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas|page = 8|year = 2013|doi-access = free}}{{efn|The Arabic name for the modern Turkish state is slightly different, Turkiyā ({{lang|ar|تركيا}}).}}

• Toponyms of Turkey
• Turkestan
• Turan
• Turki
• Names of Anatolia

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{{Asia topic|Name of|title=Names of Asian states and territories}}

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Category:History of Turkey

Turkey