A change.org petition was launched to change the name of the bird known as a turkey to turkiye, poking fun at the recent name change used by the nation Turkey.
The Turkish name change from Turkey to Turkiye was approved last week by the United Nations.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that a letter had been received on Wednesday from Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu addressed to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, requesting the use of “Türkiye” instead of “Turkey” for all affairs.
The spokesman said the country’s name change became effective from the moment the letter was received.
Turkey began the move to change its internationally recognized official name in English to Türkiye in December after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan released a statement and asked the public to use Türkiye to describe the country in every language.
“The word ‘Turkiye’ represents and expresses the culture, civilization and values of the Turkish nation in the best way,” read the statement.
But naturally, the Internet couldn’t resist poking fun at a geopolitical decision.
Renaming Turkey Bird to Turkiye petition
The change.org petition started off based on a comment posted on the subreddit r/YUROP, a meme subreddit related to Europe.
In the thread related to the name change, several Redditors commented about the change of names and how in several languages, name changes don’t always catch on.
“In Spain, we will still use the old name (Turquía),” one Redditor commented. “The new one is harder to pronounce and not worth the hassle for most people. Same with Myanmar (we call it [Birmania]), and even…Germany (we ‘still’ call it Alemania).”
“In Greece, we still call France Gallia and England Anglia,” another Redditor wrote.
The petition itself lasted just three days and obtained just shy of one thousand supporters before the person who started it decided to close it on Monday.
“Gandhi once said: ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world.’ All of you have stood up for what is just, right, good and tasty. Let me thank you for that,” he wrote on the petition’s page.
Despite having achieved nearly a thousand signatures, he decided to end it “because I still want to get served at my local kebab restaurant.”
He clarified, though, that this was meant to be a joke and nothing that would spark actual outrage or incitement.
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