Sep 11, 2023
By: Ayush Mehrotra & Shagun Chaudhary
Last year, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan decided that Turkey will now be called Turkiye, its Turkish name, instead of the English version. He believes Turkiye better represents Turkish culture and values.
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Before 1935, Iran was called Persia. The government then asked other countries to call it Iran, which is its Persian name. That's why it's called Iran today.
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In 1972, Ceylon changed its name to Sri Lanka when it became a republic, marking a shift away from its colonial past.
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In 1989, the military junta changed the name of the country from Burma to Myanmar, a move that remains politically contentious.
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Cambodia changed its name several times due to different leaders and politics. It was once the Kingdom of Cambodia, then the Khmer Republic. Under a Communist regime (1975-1979), it was called Democratic Kampuchea. The United Nations called it the State of Cambodia, later renamed the Kingdom of Cambodia in 1993.
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In 2019, North Macedonia officially changed its name from Macedonia, ending a long-standing dispute with Greece over the use of the name, as Greece also has a region called Macedonia.
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After gaining independence from British colonial rule in 1980, Southern Rhodesia changed its name to Zimbabwe.
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In 2018, King Mswati III officially changed the name of the country from Swaziland to Eswatini to reflect the nation's Swazi heritage and culture.
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After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic changed its name to the Republic of Belarus.
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In 1975, the Republic of Dahomey officially changed its name to the People's Republic of Benin to reflect its national identity and break from its colonial past.
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