Visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan shakes hands with his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani at The Prime Minister’s House in Islamabad yesterday. Erdogan arrived in Pakistan for a three-day official visit to meet Pakistani leaders
Internews/Islamabad

Although visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been accorded a warm welcome in Pakistan both by the treasury and opposition and the media, hardly anybody pronounces his name correctly.
Haroon Shaukat, Pakistan’s Ambassador in Turkey also acknowledged this point when contacted but he seems to have resigned to the reluctance on part of the leadership to rectify this mistake. “I have pointed this out many times,” said the ambassador who is in Pakistan on the occasion of the visit by the Turkish premier.
The Turkish premier’s name is written in English as Recep Tayyip Erdogan. During pronunciation in Urdu from Turkish language, “c” of Recep is sounded as “j”. Likewise, “p” of Tayyip stands for “b” and Turkish character “g” in Erdogan is silent, replaced with “a” during pronunciation and is pronounced as ‘Erdoaan.’
As Pakistani leaders and media pronounce it, they generally skip the first name, hence don’t make mistake but wrongly pronounce the last name as Erdogan instead of ‘Erdoaan.’
Contrary to the wrong pronunciation by Pakistani media, a Turkish Radio/TV that broadcasts in Urdu language as well makes correct pronouncement.
Recently, Pakistan Tehrik Insaf Chairman Imran Khan, the diplomat explained, was also found pronouncing his last name as “Erdogan”
“This shows little preparation and no research about the people they meet,” noted that diplomat.