Editing Anatolia (section)

== Names ==
{{Further|Place name changes in Turkey}}

The oldest known name for any region within Anatolia is related to its central area, known as the "Land of [[Hatti (land of the Hattians)|Hatti]]" – a designation that was initially used for the land of ancient [[Hattians]], but later became the most common name for the entire territory under the rule of ancient [[Hittites]].{{sfn|Bryce|2009|pp=297–98}}

The first recorded name the Greeks used for the Anatolian peninsula, though not particularly popular at the time, was [[:wikt:Ἀσία|Ἀσία]] (''Asía''),<ref>Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D*%29asi%2Fa Ἀσία]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110427042823/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D*%29asi%2Fa |date=27 April 2011 }}, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus.</ref> perhaps from an Akkadian expression for the "sunrise" or possibly echoing the name of the [[Assuwa league]] in western Anatolia.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}} The Romans used it as the name of their [[Asia (Roman province)|province]], comprising the west of the peninsula plus the nearby [[Aegean Islands]]. As the name "Asia" broadened its scope to apply to the vaster region east of the Mediterranean, some Greeks in [[Late Antiquity]] came to use the name Asia Minor (Μικρὰ Ἀσία, ''Mikrà Asía''), meaning "Lesser Asia" to refer to present-day Anatolia, whereas the administration of the Empire preferred the description Ἀνατολή (''Anatolḗ''; {{lit|the East}}).

The [[endonym]] Ῥωμανία (''Rōmanía'' "the land of the Romans, i.e. the Eastern Roman Empire") was understood as another name for the province by the invading [[Seljuq Turks]], who founded a [[Sultanate of Rûm]] in 1077. Thus (land of the) [[Rûm]] became another name for Anatolia. By the 12th century Europeans had started referring to Anatolia as ''Turchia''.<ref name=oxfordreference>{{Cite book| publisher = Oxford University Press| isbn = 978-0191866326| last = Everett-Heath| first = John| title = The Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names| volume = 1| chapter = Anatolia| access-date = 5 December 2018| year = 2018| chapter-url = http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191866326.001.0001/acref-9780191866326-e-258| doi = 10.1093/acref/9780191866326.001.0001| archive-date = 6 December 2018| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181206102228/http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191866326.001.0001/acref-9780191866326-e-258| url-status = live}}</ref>

During the era of the [[Ottoman Empire]], many mapmakers referred to the mountainous plateau in eastern Anatolia as [[Armenia]]. Other contemporary sources called the same area [[Kurdistan]].<ref name=suny>{{Cite book| publisher = Princeton University Press| isbn = 978-1400865581| last = Suny| first = Ronald Grigor| title = 'They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else': A History of the Armenian Genocide| year=2015|page=31}}</ref> Geographers have used ''[[East Anatolian plateau]]'', ''[[Armenian plateau]]'' and the ''[[Iranian plateau]]'' to refer to the region; the former two largely overlap.<ref name=Oxford_Handbook_p466>{{harvnb|Steadman|McMahon|2011|p=466}}</ref> While a standard definition of Anatolia refers to the entire Asian side of Turkey, according to archaeologist Lori Khatchadourian, this difference in terminology "primarily result[s] from the shifting political fortunes and cultural trajectories of the region since the nineteenth century".<ref name=Oxford_Handbook_p466/>

Turkey's [[First Geography Congress, Turkey|First Geography Congress]] in 1941 created two [[geographical regions of Turkey]] to the east of the Gulf of Iskenderun-Black Sea line, the [[Eastern Anatolia region]] and the [[Southeastern Anatolia region]],<ref name="Yigit">Ali Yiğit, "Geçmişten Günümüze Türkiye'yi Bölgelere Ayıran Çalışmalar ve Yapılması Gerekenler", ''Ankara Üniversitesi Türkiye Coğrafyası Araştırma ve Uygulama Merkezi, IV. Ulural Coğrafya Sempozyumu, "Avrupa Birliği Sürecindeki Türkiye'de Bölgesel Farklılıklar"'', [http://www.fka.org.tr/SayfaDownload/bildiri_nihan_atay.pdf pp.&nbsp;34–35]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109013737/http://www.fka.org.tr/SayfaDownload/bildiri_nihan_atay.pdf |date=9 November 2013 }}.</ref> the former largely corresponding to the western part of the Armenian Highlands, the latter to the northern part of the Mesopotamian plain. According to [[Richard G. Hovannisian|Richard Hovannisian]], this changing of toponyms was "necessary to obscure all evidence" of the [[Armenians|Armenian]] presence as part of the policy of [[Armenian genocide denial]] embarked upon by the newly established Turkish government and what Hovannisian calls its "foreign collaborators".<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Wayne State University Press| isbn = 978-0814327777| last = Hovannisian| first = Richard G.| title = Remembrance and Denial: The Case of the Armenian Genocide| date = 1998| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kiBHkRtRmIIC&pg=PA204| access-date = 5 December 2018| archive-date = 10 March 2020| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200310025218/https://books.google.com/books?id=kiBHkRtRmIIC&pg=PA204| url-status = live}}</ref>