Of Orgies and Batman at Turkish Airports

orgy links to original article

(Sabah Newspaper, 18 July 2011)

The name for the airport that will serve Ordu and Giresun in the Black Sea
region has been changed 17 years later. The Transportation Ministry, which
had named the airport Or-Gi by taking the first two letters of Ordu and
Giresun, has changed it because it sounds too much like the English word
'orgy' which means a wild sex party with lots of singing and drinking. The
airport's new name is Ordu-Giresun.

The project began when Ordu and Giresun requested an airport in
connection with the airport campaign of the 1990's, which was launched
with the slogan 'an airport for every province.' Like in Trabzon, the airport
for Ordu and Giresun will be constructed by filling in the sea and will
serve both provinces. But an argument erupted with regard to the name
when the people of Ordu wanted the airport named Ordu and the people
of Giresun wanted the same thing. The argument was settled when the
Transportation Ministry decided on a joint name that combined the first
two letters of each province's name.

Finally, after sitting on the shelf for years, the Or-Gi Airport Project was
begun and the contract for construction was won by the Cengiz-IC Içtaş
partnership. The airport will be built at Gülyalı, which is 19 kilometers from
Ordu and 25 kilometers from Giresun, and will enter service in 2014. The
name of the airport, which had been changed to Or-Gi to settle the argument,
was changed again to Ordu-Giresun prior to the project being opened for
bids. It turns out that behind this change lies a very interesting coincidence.

The Transportation Ministry was concerned that the name might be
misunderstood since it would of course be seen in international sources. The
thinking was that Or-Gi would be pronounced like the English word 'orgy',
which was the word used for the group-sex parties of the gods of
ancient Greece that involved lots of singing and drinking. The word has come
to be the modern reference for such parties and goings-on. So that's why
the Ministry changed the name to Ordu-Giresun Airport.

Local names given to airports have caused some problems in the international
arena. Previously, an English newspaper reported that the Turks 'had given
the name Batman (after the comic book character) to an airport', when it
was in fact the name for the airport at Batman, Turkey.