Monday, October 08, 2007

Shop names in Turkish?


This is another ridiculous piece of legislation: all shop names must be renamed in Turkish in Bodrum. To protect the Turkish language....
I don't know how they will translate the BodyShop, McDonalds, Tesco, Reebok Store, Swarovski store etc. into Turkish.
Are the SHELL shop, BP shop, Total shop, still allowed? And what about Carrefour?
What about all the discos, hotels, restaurants?
Why not re-brand Bodrum as a city into Halicarnassus..)) That would be fun..

6 comments:

Unknown said...

You must be just another victim of “incomplete information”. I live in Bodrum and a relative of mine is a current member of the municipal assembly.
In order to complete that issue:
1- It is not about branches of foreign companies (i.e. franchisees), not about the entertainment sector but exclusively about Turkish shops that will open for first time in Turkey.
2- It is not just about protecting the language but rather more to protect an authentic atmosphere on the streets of Bodrum. Can you imagine a romantic-typical-oriental street in Bodrum with-only names like: Svarowski, Kodak, McDonalds, Bild Zeitung, etc.?

Anonymous said...

Mehmet,
Then TDN is misinformed as well.
Yes, I can imagine these kind of streets all over Europe.
I even some typical Dutch streets in the Netherlands and Germany which are completely transformed into Turkish streets and dito names too..))
But anyway, thanks for the additional information.
regards

Anonymous said...

Hans,

I like your thinking. Here are a few other fun re-branding exercises:

Istanbul into Constantinople;
Gaziantep into Aintab;
Şanlıurfa into Urfa or even Edessa;
Kahramanmaraş into Maraş;
Antakya into Antioch.

Indeed why not re-brand Turkey as ‘Byzantium’?

Kind regards.

R.

Unknown said...

Dear R.

Here my official statement on that..))

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=66304

kindest

Anonymous said...

Hans I agree with mehmet, I believe those new supermarket or small cafe and restaurant names increasingly put their names in foreign languages last few years. Not only Bodrum even small towns have the same issue in Turkey. Small Bakkal (small market shop) has name of Starfish or something:))

Ardent said...

derya,
People should be allowed to choose. There are Turks in Australia who name their business' Turkish names, like:-
Ozturk Plastering
Beton Concreting
Kismet receptions
Anadolu kebabs
Sultan meat supply, etc, etc

Cheers