A guide to renamed cities

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN has had enough of bad puns that conflate Turkey, the country he has governed for two decades, with the ugly bird served for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Convinced that his power extends to the English language, late last year Mr Erdogan decreed that his country would henceforth be known to the rest of the world as Türkiye, as it is in Turkish. It plans to register with the United Nations under the new name. State institutions have begun using it already.

Despite the fortune spent on a new publicity campaign, including videos aired on Turkish Airlines the world over, Türkiye is not catching on. At a recent international forum in Antalya, on the country’s southern coast, diplomats did not appear in the least interested in using the new name (pronounced with a ü somewhat like the German one and a “yeah”-like ending). Their Turkish counterparts occasionally used the old one, then corrected themselves, then realised no one really cared. The only people who stayed on message, at least in public, were foreigners working for Turkey’s state propaganda channel, hired as panel moderators, who took turns garbling Türkiye. Mr Erdogan’s supporters nonetheless rejoice in the idea that foreigners will be made to call their country by its authentic name. Critics say the move is a populist gimmick.