[umanwizard]

So what? The UN does not have the power to redefine what words mean in the English language, and neither does the Republic of Turkey. If Germany submitted an official letter somewhere purporting to change its English name to Deutschland, you should also not listen to them.

[happytoexplain]

Why the hostility? It's not like they changed the name of the Black Sea to the Sea of Turkey. It's not a "fuck you" move. Just keep spelling it the old way if you care for some reason.

[umanwizard]

> Why the hostility?

Because the attempted name change is being done purely to stroke the ego of a right-wing authoritarian nationalist strongman. Attempts by such people to remake language according to their whims should be resisted whenever possible.

> It's not like they changed the name of the Black Sea to the Sea of Turkey.

I'm sure Erdogan would do just that if there were any realistic possibility that anybody would actually follow it. The "Türkiye" name change is as much as he thinks he can get away with.

[throw4r3w21a3]

You are free to use their old name, and others are free to use their new name.

You could even make up a name if you want.

[miroljub]

Exactly my point. And it doesn't apply only to English. There are 200+ languages and 8+ billion people in the world, and none of them is obliged to change the way they talk because someone doesn't like what a specific word means in one of those languages.