Filenews 15 June 2022
Turkish Airlines will henceforth carry its Turkish name abroad, "Türk Havayollari", as is the verbatim translation, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced today.
"The national company will henceforth operate its international flights under the name Türk Havayollari and no longer as Turkish Airlines," said the head of state, who has already changed his country's name to the United Nations.
Erdogan, who was speaking to the parliamentary group of his party, the Islamo-conservative AKP, formally asked the UN in early June for Turkey to henceforth be referred to under its Turkish name "Türkiye", which he wants to make as a unique "brand" in all languages for exports.
The name Türkiye allows the country to get rid of the English name of "Turkey"—a turkey--that causes smiles.
Turkish Airlines, which already serves more than 200 destinations in the world on all continents with Istanbul as its point of departure, is 49% owned by the Turkish state.
The company transferred more than 74 million. passengers in 2019 and 44.8 million passengers. in 2021 due to the pandemic.
The company has been regularly elected as the best European airline since 2011, according to several websites.
Asked by the French Agency about this change of name abroad, a representative of the company did not respond prematurely.
This "Turkification" of the name of the country and its national company comes a year before the presidential elections that have been announced to be held in mid-June 2023, and in which Erdogan has announced his candidacy.
In power since 2003, as prime minister and then as president, he is facing a serious economic crisis and an inflation of more than 73%.
According to a poll conducted in April by the Turkish institute Metropoll, Erdogan could be defeated in the second round by a potential opponent.
Source: Capital.gr
