The country tried it once in the late 1980s. But it could not prevail. Now the chances are better. At the request of the government in Ankara, the UN changed the name of Turkey from the previously used English Turkey to Türkiye. In the eyes of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, this should soon happen everywhere.
“There is no longer Turkey, only Türkiye,” said the head of state in a speech on Tuesday (June 14). And he wants this to be visible throughout the world. The national airline should therefore also change its name. “From now on we will write Türkiye Hava Yolları instead of Turkish Airlines on the fuselage of our planes,” Erdogan told cheering supporters.
Turkish Airlines is currently called Türk Hava Yolları in Turkish, often abbreviated by the initials THY. The new name is very similar to the current Turkish one. So far, however, it has only been used domestically. The English brand name is on the aircraft and only that is used in all communication channels.
A name change, such as that Erdogan has now ordered ex officio, is not necessarily advantageous for Turkish Airlines. Not only is the name internationally unknown. All documents, planes, counters, apps and so on also have to be relabeled one by one. That eats up millions.
Also read: Turkey – Why the inflation rate is exploding under Erdogan
The management should therefore try to agree on a compromise with the government. However, the state has a 49 percent stake in the national airline, making it by far the largest shareholder. In addition, the influence of politics on Turkish Airlines has been great since the coup attempt against Erdogan in 2016 at the latest.
Türkiye is the Turkish name of Turkey. Observers believe that Erdogan wants to distract from domestic political problems and the economic crisis in the country with the renaming. It was “another strategy by the Turkish government to reach nationalist voters in a crucial year for Turkish politics,” said Francesco Siccardi of the Carnegie Europe think tank.
This article was written by Stefan Eiselin
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The original of this article “Turkish Airlines will soon have a different name – because Erdogan wants it that way” comes from aeroTelegraph.
