Turkish official calls for renaming Pierre Loti Hill in Istanbul

Murat Ertaş, the Erzurum branch president of the Turkish Language and Literature Association (TDED), has called for the removal of the name Pierre Loti from the hill located in the Eyüp district of Istanbul.

Ertaş argues that the name, assigned by the Istanbul Municipality in 1934, does not align with Turkish and Islamic identity. He advocates for restoring the hill's historical name, İdris Köşkü Tepesi, which refers to the 16th-century scholar and statesman İdris-i Bitlisi.

In his statement, Ertaş criticized the original naming decision as a product of Western influence and requested that both the Ministry of Interior and the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality take action to change the name to better reflect the spiritual significance of the area.