[jdmitch]

I think this is part of a general de-arabization trend which followed the crumbling of the Ottoman empire, as many words would naturally have been transliterated with a q (which would be ق in the Arabic script, which was used in Ottoman Turkish). I have heard that for many years it was illegal to name a son Muhammad in Turkey - you could only use the "Turkified" version Mehmed or Mehmet.

[vidarh]

That's probably part of it, but note that the articles point about e.g. Kurdish meshes well with decades of extensive cultural oppression of the Kurds and other minority groups in terms of outlawing teaching of their language, and even for a while outlawing the very name Kurd as well.

I used to know a Turkish journalist who was granted political asylum in Norway (one of many Turks who had to flee over issues like this) after repeated death-threats from the then-Turkish regime (early 90's) because he wrote articles about the situation of the Kurds.

[farslan]

Nope, you can still name it as "Muhammet", which is the turkish version of "Muhammad".

[diorray]

Are you kidding me? "Muhammad" was never illegal in Turkey. Show evidence of prohibited.