Place name changes in Turkey have been undertaken, periodically, in bulk from 1913 to the present by successive Turkish governments. Thousands of names within the Turkish Republic or its predecessor the Ottoman Empire have been changed from their popular or historic alternatives in favour of recognizably Turkish names, as part of Turkification policies. The governments have argued that such names are foreign or divisive, while critics of the changes have described them as chauvinistic. Names changed were usually of Armenian, Greek, Georgian, Laz, Bulgarian, Kurdish (Zazaki), Persian, Neo-Aramaic/Syriac, or Arabic origin.

Turkey's efforts to join the European Union in the early 21st century have led to a decrease in the incidence of such changes from local government, and the central government even more so. In some cases legislation has restored the names of certain villages (primarily those housing Kurdish and Zaza minorities). Place names that changed formally have frequently persisted in local dialects and languages throughout the ethnically diverse country.

The policy of turkifiying non-turkish names already arose in the late stages of the Ottoman Empire. In the early years of the Republic, although the idea of ‘Turkification’ continued to receive interest and support at the ideological level, no significant steps were taken in practice except in isolated instances. Radical forms began in the 1950s. From this date onwards, Turkification was adopted as a ‘state policy’ that transcended political powers. Following the coup d'état of 27 May 1960, within four months, nearly 10,000 new village names were put into official use. Approximately one third of all place names in Turkey were changed before 1965. Some 12,000 villages and 4,000 neighboring settlements, some with thousands of years of history, as well as thousands of rivers, mountains and geographical shapes were given new Turkish names.

The Committee of Union and Progress took the reins of the Ottoman government through a coup d'état in 1913. At the height of World War I and during the final years of the Ottoman Empire, when the ethnic cleansing policies of non-Muslim Greek, Armenian, and Assyrian minorities were underway, Minister of War Enver Pasha issued an edict (ferman) on 6 October 1916, declaring:

It has been decided that provinces, districts, towns, villages, mountains, and rivers, which are named in languages belonging to non-Muslim nations such as Armenian, Greek or Bulgarian, will be renamed into Turkish. In order to benefit from this suitable moment, this aim should be achieved in due course.

General Directorate of State Archives of the Republic of Turkey, İstanbul Vilayet Mektupçuluğu, no. 000955, 23 Kânunuevvel 1331 (6 October 1916) Ordinance of Enver Paşa

Enver Pasha did not change the geographical names belonging to Muslim minorities (i.e. Arabs and Kurds) due to the Ottoman government's role as a Caliphate. His decree inspired many Turkish intellectuals to write in support of such measures. One such intellectual, Hüseyin Avni Alparslan (1877–1921), a Turkish soldier and author of books about Turkish language and culture, was inspired by the efforts of Enver Pasha, writing in his book Trabzon İli Lâz mı? Türk mü? (Is the Trabzon province Laz or Turkish?) that:

If we want to be the owner of our country, then we should turn even the name of the smallest village into Turkish and not leave its Armenian, Greek or Arabic variants.