I'm very well aware of that.

Whenever I've been on the receiving end of a name change like that, I (and everyone I knew) found it obnoxious.

However, cultures differ. Turkey has a long history with name changes, and has been rather aggressive about them. When it became "Turkey," the post office wouldn't deliver mail unless the new name was used. Likewise, the capital has gone through two names since "Byzantium."

I was genuinely curious about local reaction. I have no idea, from the other end of the world, whether this was imposed by Erdogan as a crazy policy to everyone's annoyance, or whether it is wildly popular. I assume somewhere in between.

You sound like you're 800 years old.

They got fed up with Google search returning stuff about birds.

Who is “they”?

>> Off-topic: Do most people there prefer "Türkiye" or "Turkey?"

> There was an official name change [1] to Türkiye.

That absolutely does not answer the question, and you know that.

> Erdogan released a memorandum and asked the public to use Türkiye to describe the country in every language

I wonder how that works. Does Eredrogan expect every country to write and say "Türkiye? Does it work the other way around - can Germany change their official name in Turkey/Türkiye to "Deutschland"?

>Does it work the other way around - can Germany change their official name in Turkey/Türkiye to "Deutschland"?

Probably not in the same way, as Turkish is not a UN official language. They could request their name be changed in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, or Arabic though.

The problem is, the bird is supposedly named after the country, and that if the country had changed/clarified its name, so should the bird, against Turkish intent.