Why Turks and Caicos Islands have this name ' Turks and Caicos" ? Ottoman Empire never was in Caraibbean Sea?

Question

It's quite mysterious...

Answer 1

Here is your answer Stefoun;
"HOW WAS TURKS & CAICOS ISLANDS NAME DERIVED?
The popular story is the name Turks being derived after the indigenous Turk's Head "fez" cactus, pictured on the left, and the name Caicos, a Lucayan term "caya hico," meaning string of islands.

A more romantic, origin of the name is a reflection of the Islands' pirate history, when 17th and 18th century pirates used the islands as hideouts and preyed upon the passing Spanish treasure ships bound for Europe. The term "Turk" for a pirate stemmed two centuries earlier when the Ottoman Empire dominated the Mediterranean and Turkish corsairs harried European Atlantic shipping, thus translated "Turks" Islands becomes "Pirate" Islands!

The non-intuitive nom is often mispelt as Turks and Cacos and Turk and Caicos Islands. We have even see an occasional envelope arrive with the address 'Turks and Tacos' ! And speaking of mail, some mail arriving here has been branded with a trail of postmarks showing its trip here via a small detour to Turkey.

TCI uses the postal code BWI which represents British West Indies, a diversified group of Caribbean islands including Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Monserrat, and the Turks and Caicos Islands, all dependent areas of the United Kingdom. "

Answer 2

Straight from the official Turks and Caicos tourism website (shown below) we have this explanation:
"Turks is a reference to the indigenous Turk’s head cactus and Caicos is from the Lucayan term “caya hico” meaning string of islands."