OFFICIAL CHANGES TO TURKISH PLACE NAMES SOMETIMES A HARD SELL

Today’s Zaman
14 August 2009, Friday

President Abdullah Gul recently used the old name of Bitlis’ Norþin
district, which was renamed Guroymak. Gul’s usage sparked a major
debate over place name changes.

President Abdullah Gul’s recent use of the old name of renamed
district has reignited public debate over the names of things in
Turkey, a subject sometimes closely intertwined with issues and
conflicts involving cultural and ethnic identity. What’s in a name?

Quite a bit it seems, with the president’s recent usage of the original
name Norþin to refer to Bitlis’ Guroymak district during a visit,
sparking heated discussions over place names in Turkey. Around 28,000
names of provinces, districts, villages, rivers and streams have been
changed officially in recent times. Most of them, about 12,000, have
been village names. While this phenomenon can be observed throughout
the country, there is a large amount of places in the Black Sea and
eastern and southeastern Anatolia regions that were renamed.

Place names in Turkey are granted for a variety of natural, social
and culture factors. In particular, village names can be divided into
two types: Turkish names and non-Turkish names. A significant number
of villages in both categories have had their official names changed
since 1940.

Again, most of the village name changes are in the eastern Black Sea
and eastern and southeastern Anatolia regions. However, while the
official names have changed, they do not all enjoy public acceptance,
with middle-aged and elderly citizens in particular often refusing
to refer to their hometowns by the new titles.

Around 28,000 provinces, districts, villages, rivers and streams have
had their names officially changed since 1940, sometimes for loaded
political or ethnic reasons and sometimes for expediency. But getting
people to adopt the new names of their homes isn’t always easy

A 2000 publication by Fýrat University faculty member Dr. Harun
Tuncel on the Turkish villages whose names have been changed sheds
light on the topic of the name changes that have been taking place
for 50 years. In 1949, the Provincial Administration Law went into
effect, which led to the 1957 establishment of a Name Changing Expert
Commission to review the names of around 75,000 residential places
in Turkey.

The commission decided to change 28,000 of them. Between 1965 and 1970
and from 1975-76, the commission also evaluated the names of natural
bodies such as lakes, changing nearly 2,000 names of such bodies.

In 1982 the Interior Ministry published a report called "Our Villages,"
which detailed all of the villages whose names had been changed by
1981 — a figure it pegged at 11,931. Work in the ministry archives
has shown the number of villages whose names have been changed since
1981 to number 280.

As in the Black Sea region, some of the village names in eastern and
southeastern Turkey that have been changed are Turkish names. But
the vast majority of names that have been altered in these regions
were changed because they were of Armenian, Kurdish or Arabic
origin. Tuncel’s 2000 report noted that village residents had not
yet fully adopted usage of the new official names.

Middle-aged and senior residents in particular eschewed using the
new names of their hometowns, with children and youth using the new
names, since they were more familiar with the new names. Because
of the continued usage of the old names by an important segment of
society in these villages, the old names have not yet been erased
from the collective memory, Tuncel says.

Even though the government may change a name of an area, what is
more important is the usage of a name by the public and in the home,
Tuncel noted. "It certainly seems as if the usage of the old names
will continue for some time to come. It’s a reality that despite the
fact that the new names are in Turkish and chosen for their harmony
with the Turkish writing system, some of these will never be widely
adopted by the regional public, and such places will continue for
centuries to be referred to by their old names," he said.

Turkish names were also changed by the commission. In some cases,
this is due to the proximity with other villages, for example,
with names similar enough to serve as cause for confusion. In other
places, the names were simply so ludicrous that the commission felt
it necessary to change them to avoid humiliation or embarrassment by
residents or public officials. Examples Tuncel gives of such places
that names were changed include Aptaldam (Idiot Roof), Deliler (The
Maniacs), Kotukoy (Evil Village), Þeytanabat (the Land of Lucifer),
Kýllý (Hairy), Komik (Comical) and Hýrsýzpýnar (Thief Fountain).