Burma or Myanmar? The correct way to name the country that is experiencing a coup

The Myanmar military detained the country's State Councilor (and de facto leader), Aung San Suu Kyi, the president, Win Myint, and leaders of his party, the NLD (National League for democracy).

This coup comes after the November 8 elections and leads the country to the situation of military dictatorship that lived between 1962 and 2011. [Follow the details of the coup in Myanmar in EL PAÍS].

The event has been reported by international media in a very diverse way.

The Spanish-language media have reported this coup in various ways, referring to the Asian country indistinctly as

Burma

or

Myanmar

.

The Foundation for Urgent Spanish (Fundéu) defines in an editorial article on the coup that "the name of the country in Spanish is Burma, preferable in unofficial documents to Myanmar or the Republic of the Union of Myanmar," it indicates.

"Nor is the English form Burma advisable," he adds.

🇲🇲 Burma or Myanmar?

On February 1, a coup d'état took place in this Southeast Asian country.

But why these two names?

Which one is correct?

pic.twitter.com/9ZyY61WDW3

- Deciphering the War (@descifraguerra) February 2, 2021

According to the retired Spanish ambassador Juan Manuel López Nadal in a column published in EL PAÍS in 2010, the use of the terms Burma or Myanmar is not random, and it does have a deep political background.

After the independence of this country in 1946, Burma continued to retain the name it had from times before British colonization, Burma in English and Burma in Spanish.

The military junta that staged a coup in Burma in 1989 changed the country's name to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.

This name change is currently recognized by the United Nations and the European Union, although other countries still reject it, such as the United States.

When the English colonized the country in the 19th century they opted for the name Burma, although the more formal term Myanmar was also used in the same territory.

Some independentistas claimed this second formula from the 1920s, as a way of remembering the history of their kingdom before the arrival of the English.

In this context, the diplomatic authorities of Mexico and Spain have chosen to use the name Myanmar, although the gentilicio that continues to predominate is

Burmese

, derived from the traditional name in Spanish.

The Fundéu specifies that forms created from Myanmar, such as

myanmeno

,

myanmarense

or

myanmareño, are also documented

.

To know more...

… The Burmese coup junta assures that it will hold power until new elections in a year.

The military alleges electoral fraud in the November voting, but the National Electoral Commission assured that the appointment with the polls was carried out in a perfectly legitimate manner.

US President Joe Biden has called the military coup a "direct assault on democracy and the rule of law" and has threatened sanctions.

… Aung San Suu Kyi and the Army: the impossible relationship that keeps the Nobel from power.

The balance of power between Suu Kyi and the military has been subject to headaches since the NLD won the first free elections in Myanmar (formerly Burma) in 2015, which had begun a democratic transition after half a century of the Military Junta (1962- 2011).

… The coup in Myanmar, in pictures.

… Editorial: Coup in Myanmar.

… United Nations condemns Myanmar's human rights abuses against the Rohingya (December 2019).

A resolution calls on the Burmese government to take urgent action against hatred of the country's minorities fifteen days after Aung San Suu Kyi rejected the allegations of genocide in The Hague.

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