Turkey is rebranding itself and is now known as "Türkiye" in the halls of the United Nations.
Earlier this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced that he had written a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in which he asked that the UN recognize his country’s name change.
"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,'" wrote Cavusoglu.
UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric told CNN on Thursday that the UN accepted the change, and it became effective as soon as they received the request and made sure that the document was legitimate, which was on Wednesday.
"It's not an issue, it's not for us to accept or not accept," Dujarric said. "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."
"One that comes to the top of my head is Côte d'Ivoire, which used to be referred to in English as Ivory Coast and they requested Côte d'Ivoire," he added.
Cavusoglu told the Anadolu news agency on Wednesday that by working with Turkey's Directorate of Communications, which is affiliated with the President's office, the government had been able to successfully lay the groundwork for the rebrand.
"We have made it possible for the UN and other international organizations, and countries to see this change to using 'Türkiye,'" he said.