A firebrand from the streets of Istanbul dreaming of reuniting the Turks with Islam, a business-friendly conservative city mayor, a populist voice of the nativist right: the clue to understanding its enigmatic president lies in Turkey’s tangled past.

A firebrand from the streets of Istanbul dreaming of reuniting the Turks with Islam, a business-friendly conservative city mayor, a populist voice of the nativist right: the clue to understanding its enigmatic president lies in Turkey’s tangled past

The world is now to refer to the Republic of Turkey as “Türkiye”. In June, Ankara wrote to the United Nations requesting that the organisation use the Turkish moniker, a request the latter accepted. The country’s vituperative President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been embroiled in disputes with fellow Nato members, is at loggerheads with Greece over access to the Aegean and has been mediating between Ukraine and Russia to avert a global food crisis. He also faces multiple problems on the domestic front, not least an unprecedented financial crisis. Against this backdrop, it might seem remarkable that Turkey’s leader has the time or energy to be exercised over what the international community calls his country.

But symbolic gestures are proven vote-winners. There is a general election next year and the President has no intention of vacating his position during the centenary year of the Turkish Republic’s founding. For Erdogan, however, the change of name is about more than politics. It is a question of respect. “Türkiye represents and expresses the culture, civilisation and values of the Turkish nation in the best way,” he said last December. “Turkey”, on the other hand, is an English synonym for “failure” and a bird eaten at Christmas. Erdogan wants to remind the world that his country is a great power, the descendent of the all-conquering Ottoman Empire, and should be treated as such.

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