Parade Magazine

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Turkey Gets Tough With The Red Fox

We feel bad for Turkey, a nation whose name is synonymous with a bird that
gets stuffed each Thanksgiving. But we think Turkey is a bit oversensitive
about animal names.

Its native red fox and wild sheep are getting new monikers because the old
ones refer to Kurdistan and Armenia. (Turkey opposes Kurdish separatists and
has rocky relations with Armenia, which accuses the Turks of killing 1.5
million Armenians in the years 1915-23.)

The fox, Vulpes Vulpes Kurdistanica, is now just Vulpes Vulpes; and the
sheep, Ovis Armeniana, is now Ovis Orientalis Anatolicus. Turkey says the
old names were given `with ill intentions.’