Turkey Officially Changes Name at UN to 'Turkiye'

A Turkish flag with the Bosphorus Bridge in the background, flies on a passenger ferry in Istanbul, Turkey September 30, 2020. (Reuters)
A Turkish flag with the Bosphorus Bridge in the background, flies on a passenger ferry in Istanbul, Turkey September 30, 2020. (Reuters)
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Turkey Officially Changes Name at UN to 'Turkiye'

A Turkish flag with the Bosphorus Bridge in the background, flies on a passenger ferry in Istanbul, Turkey September 30, 2020. (Reuters)
A Turkish flag with the Bosphorus Bridge in the background, flies on a passenger ferry in Istanbul, Turkey September 30, 2020. (Reuters)

Turkey has told the United Nations that, at the behest of its president, it wishes from now on to be called "Turkiye" in all languages, the UN announced Thursday.

"The change is immediate," Stephane Dujarric, the UN chief's spokesperson, told AFP by email.

He noted that Ankara's official letter requesting the change had been received at the UN's New York headquarters on Wednesday.

The day before, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavasoglu had tweeted a photo of himself signing the letter, addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

"With the letter I sent to the UN Secretary General today, we are registering our country's name in foreign languages at the UN as 'Turkiye,'" he wrote, including an umlaut over the "u".

He added that the change would bring to an end the process of "increasing the brand value of our country," an initiative started by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has led the country for almost two decades.

Over the past few years, the country has sought to change the branding on its products from "made in Turkey" to "made in Turkiye."

In addition to making the UN's nomenclature match how the nation is spelled in Turkish, the update would also help distinguish the country from the bird of the same name in English.

"The name change may seem silly to some but it puts Erdogan in the role of protector, of safeguarding international respect for the country," Georgetown University professor Mustafa Aksakal was quoted as saying in The New York Times.

The newspaper also noted that the move comes ahead of next year's presidential election as well as the centenary of the nation's founding after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.



Russia, Ukraine Complete Second Round of Prisoner Exchange

Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) react following a prisoner swap at an undisclosed location, Ukraine, 10 June 2025. (EPA)
Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) react following a prisoner swap at an undisclosed location, Ukraine, 10 June 2025. (EPA)
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Russia, Ukraine Complete Second Round of Prisoner Exchange

Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) react following a prisoner swap at an undisclosed location, Ukraine, 10 June 2025. (EPA)
Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) react following a prisoner swap at an undisclosed location, Ukraine, 10 June 2025. (EPA)

Russia and Ukraine said Tuesday they had exchanged captured soldiers, the second stage of an agreement struck at peace talks last week for each side to free more than 1,000 prisoners.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday's exchange saw "the return of our injured and severely wounded warriors from Russian captivity."

Neither side said how many soldiers had been freed in the swap -- the second in as many days following another exchange on Monday.

The two sides had agreed in Istanbul last week to release all wounded soldiers and all under the age of 25.

Russia's defense ministry said: "In accordance with the Russian-Ukrainian agreements reached on June 2 in Istanbul, the second group of Russian servicemen was returned."

Zelensky said further exchanges would follow.

"The exchanges are to continue. We are doing everything we can to find and return every single person who is in captivity."

The agreement had appeared in jeopardy over the weekend, with both sides trading accusations of attempting to thwart the exchange.

Russia says Ukraine has still not agreed to collect the bodies of killed soldiers, after Moscow said more than 1,200 corpses were waiting in refrigerated trucks near the border.

Russia said it had agreed to hand over the remains of 6,000 killed Ukrainian soldiers, while Kyiv said it would be an "exchange".

Moscow and Kyiv have carried out dozens of prisoner exchanges since Russia invaded in 2022, triggering Europe's largest conflict since World War II.