Sunday Mail (SA),
March 6, 2005 Sunday
Turks in fauna name games
ANKARA: Turkey is renaming three indigenous animals to eliminate
references to Kurdistan and Armenia, saying the old names were given
by foreigners.
A species of red fox known as “Vulpes Vulpes Kurdistanica” will now
be known as just “Vulpes Vulpes,” a species of wild sheep called
“Ovis Armeniana” was changed to “Ovis Orientalis Anatolicus,” and a
type of deer known as “Capreolus Capreolus Armenus” was renamed
“Capreolus Cuprelus Capreolus,” a ministry statement said.
“Unfortunately, foreign scientists, who for many years researched
Turkey’s flora and fauna, named plant and animal species that they
had never come across before with a prejudiced mind-set,” the
statement said.