I'm not cultured enough to know the reasoning behind the convention but a lot of Turkish players do go by their given names.
Edit - I looked it up.
>Until the introduction of the Surname Law in 1934, as part of Atatürk's Reforms, ethnic Turks who were Turkish citizens had no surnames. The law required all citizens of Turkey to adopt an official surname. Before that, male Turks often used their father's name followed by -oğlu ("son of"), or a nickname of the family, before their given name (e.g. Mustafa-oğlu Mehmet, Köselerin Hasan) before the modern era.