Flag of Turkey: Difference between revisions
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[[File:Flag of Aceh.svg|right|thumb|190px|[[Aceh]] independentist flag]] |
[[File:Flag of Aceh.svg|right|thumb|190px|[[Aceh]] independentist flag]] |
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The flag used by the independence-seeking rebels in the [[Indonesia]]n province of [[Aceh]], who have conducted a decades-long struggle against both Dutch colonial rule and the post-1949 Indonesian government, bears an obvious resemblance to the flag of Turkey; presumably dating from the devoutly Muslim inhabitants of 16th century |
The flag used by the independence-seeking rebels in the [[Indonesia]]n province of [[Aceh]], who have conducted a decades-long struggle against both Dutch colonial rule and the post-1949 Indonesian government, bears an obvious resemblance to the flag of Turkey; presumably dating from the devoutly Muslim inhabitants of 16th century Aceh who declared allegiance to the Ottoman Sultan and Caliph [[Suleiman the Magnificent]] in 1566 and asked for his support against the encroaching Portuguese and Dutch, upon which the Ottoman Indian Ocean Fleet under [[Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis]] arrived at Aceh in 1569.<ref name=aceh>{{cite news |url = http://hurarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/goster/ShowNew.aspx?id=295614 |language=Turkish|title = Bayrak yasağını Türk ay-yıldızıyla deldiler |date = February 10, 2005 }}</ref> |
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==Similarity with the Uyghur Independentist Flag== |
==Similarity with the Uyghur Independentist Flag== |
Revision as of 02:42, 20 January 2011
This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2010) |
![]() | |
Use | National flag and ensign |
---|---|
Proportion | 2:3 |
Adopted | 1844 |
Design | A red field with a white crescent moon and five-pointed star slightly left of centre. |
The flag of Turkey (Turkish: Türk bayrağı) is a red flag with a white crescent moon and a star in its centre. The flag is called Ay Yıldız (literally, moon star.) or Albayrak (Red flag). The Turkish flag is referred to as Alsancak (Red banner) in the Turkish National Anthem.
The flag has a complex origin since it is an ancient design, and uses the same symbols of the late flag of the Ottoman Empire which were adopted in 1844 with the Tanzimat reforms; though the shape, placement and shade of the colour vary. The geometric proportions of the flag were legally standardised with the Turkish Flag Law in 1936. The shade of red used in the flag is approximated by RGB (227, 10, 23).
History
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Flag_of_the_President_of_Turkey.svg/150px-Flag_of_the_President_of_Turkey.svg.png)
The current design of the Turkish flag is directly derived from the late Ottoman flag, which had acquired its final form in 1844. It is known that the Ottomans used red flags of triangular shape at least since 1383, which came to be rectangular over the course of history.[citation needed]
Ottomans used several different designs, most of them featuring one or more crescents, for different purposes, such as the flag with green background signifying the caliphate. During the late imperial period, the distinctive use of the color red for secular and green for religious institutions became an established practice. In 1844, the eight-pointed star was replaced with a five-pointed star and the flag reached the form of the present Turkish flag; Red was the colour of Umar I, the Caliph who ruled from AD 634 to 644 and was known as a great consolidator of the Islamic Empire. In the 14th century red became the colour of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Flag's crescent moon was thicker than its current design.
The origin of the flag is the subject of various legends in the country, some contradicting the historical knowledge about the Ottoman Flag.
Possible origins
![]() | This section may contain material not related to the topic of the article. (November 2010) |
![]() | It has been suggested that this section be split out into another article titled Star and crescent. (Discuss) (November 2010) |
The star and crescent motif appears on a Gokturk coin of the second Turkic Kaghanate, from the first half of the 8th century AD found at Chach (Tashkent oasis). This suggests that the symbol was in use among the Turks (or at least known to them from Sogdian examples) prior to their arrival in Anatolia.[1]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/28/Moonstar.jpg/250px-Moonstar.jpg)
The crescent moon and star were mistakenly attributed to the Islamic faith. However, Islam has historically had no symbol or symbols - in fact there is a disdain within Islam for the use of iconic symbols - and many Muslims find its use blasphemous, even to this day. After all, the moon and star used in conjunction were originally pagan icons. Though the Crescent Moon and a Star appear on the flags of several Muslim countries, it should be seen more as a historical symbol of the land, the territory or the empire, rather than of a state religion. It was adopted by reformists who changed the Islamic Constitution.
Star and Crescent with the points of the crescent facing left and the star on the left represents the moon goddess Dianna and the "son of the morning", the name of Lucifer in Isaiah 14:12. Witchcraft uses it this way and Satanism turns it in the opposite direction i.e. the points towards the right, and the pentagram on its right.
Historically, in accounting for the crescent and star symbol, Ottomans sometimes referred to a legendary dream of the eponymous founder of the Ottoman house, Osman I, in which he is reported to have seen a moon rising from the breast of a Muslim judge whose daughter he sought to marry. "When full, it descended into his own breast. Then from his loins there sprang a tree, which as it grew came to cover the whole world with the shadow of its green and beautiful branches." Beneath it Osman saw the world spread out before him, surmounted by the crescent.[2] The absence of any mention of a star in this dream does, however, seem to make it a rather unlikely explanation for the specific star and crescent symbol.
The crescent moon and star were holy symbols for pre-Islamic Turkic tribes, while red was the cardinal color for west in ancient Turkic culture. In Turkish tradition, red also represents hegemony, while white represents power, justice, exaltation and purity. Göktürks, a pre-Islamic Turkic people who lived in Central Asia, used crescent and star on their coins. A 1500 years old Göktürk coin includes three figures of a crescent moon and a star around the possible figure of a leader.[3][4]
Legends
The most accepted legend of the flag in Turkey is that in a pool of blood of Turkish warriors, there was a reflection of the crescent moon and a star. The most popular version of this legend is that in the year 1071, after the Battle of Manzikert and the defeat of the Byzantine army, the Seljuk Khan, Alp Arslan was roaming the battlefield where he saw the reflection of the crescent moon and the star on a pool of blood of Turkish warriors. After he saw this image, he decided that this would be the flag representing the Turks.
Other Turkish legends include:
- A dream of the first leader of Xiong-nu Alliance, Mete Khan in which a crescent and star appeared from his chest and expanded.[citation needed]
- A crescent and star were spotted on the night of the fall of Constantinople to Mehmed II in 1453.[citation needed]
Legal basis
Fundamentals of the Turkish flag were laid down by Turkish Flag Law No. 2994 on May 29, 1936. Turkish Flag Regulation No. 2/7175 dated July 28, 1937, and Supplementary Regulation No. 11604/2 dated July 29, 1939, were enacted to describe how the flag law would be implemented. The Turkish Flag Law No. 2893 dated September 22, 1983, and Published in the Official Gazette on September 24, 1983, was promulgated six months after its publication. According to Article 9 of Law No. 2893, a statute including the fundamentals of the implementation was also published.
Construction
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Turkey_flag_const.png)
Letter | Measure | Length |
---|---|---|
G | Width | |
A | Distance between the centre of the outer crescent and the seam of the white band | 1/2 G |
B | Diameter of the outer circle of the crescent | 1/2 G |
C | Distance between the centres of the inner and outer circles of the crescent | 1/16 G |
D | Diameter of the inner circle of the crescent | 2/5 G |
E | Distance between the inner circle of the crescent and the circle around the star | 1/3 G |
F | Diameter of the circle around the star | 1/4 G |
L | Length | 1 ½ G |
M | Width of the white hem at the hoist | 1/30 G |
The above specification is what is given by Turkish Flag Law. Note that this implies that the distance between (the left edge of) the inner circle of the crescent and a vertical line connecting the two pointed ends of the crescent is 279/800 G = 0.34875 G; thus, the left point of the star protrudes with about 0.0154 G beyond that line.
A common mistake in rendering the flag is to omit the white hem at the hoist (the left side).
Similarity with the Aceh Independentist Flag
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/Flag_of_Free_Aceh_Movement.svg/190px-Flag_of_Free_Aceh_Movement.svg.png)
The flag used by the independence-seeking rebels in the Indonesian province of Aceh, who have conducted a decades-long struggle against both Dutch colonial rule and the post-1949 Indonesian government, bears an obvious resemblance to the flag of Turkey; presumably dating from the devoutly Muslim inhabitants of 16th century Aceh who declared allegiance to the Ottoman Sultan and Caliph Suleiman the Magnificent in 1566 and asked for his support against the encroaching Portuguese and Dutch, upon which the Ottoman Indian Ocean Fleet under Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis arrived at Aceh in 1569.[5]
Similarity with the Uyghur Independentist Flag
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Kokbayraq_flag.svg/190px-Kokbayraq_flag.svg.png)
The Uyghurs use a blue version of the flag. This flag is used by Uyghurs as a symbol of the East Turkestan independence movement. It is almost identical to the flag of Turkey except with a blue background.
Similarity with Other Flags
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/Flag_of_the_Turkish_Republic_of_Northern_Cyprus.svg/190px-Flag_of_the_Turkish_Republic_of_Northern_Cyprus.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/Flag_of_the_Iraqi_Turkmen_Front.svg/190px-Flag_of_the_Iraqi_Turkmen_Front.svg.png)
Flag of Northern Cyprus or Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, flag of former Republic of Hatay, Turkmeneli flag or Iraqi Turkmens, etc. Flag of the State of Kelantan, Malaysia
Notes and references
- ^ Gaybullah Babayarov, "The Catalogue of the coins of Turkic Qaghanate", TIKA, 2007, p 91
- ^ Lord Kinross, The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire, Morrow Quill Paperbacks, 1977, pp 23-24.
- ^ 1500 year old coin with crescent moon and star (Turkish)
- ^ [Gaybullah Babayarov, "The Catalogue of the coins of Turkic Qaghanate", TIKA, 2007, p 91]
- ^ "Bayrak yasağını Türk ay-yıldızıyla deldiler" (in Turkish). February 10, 2005.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Türk Bayrağı Kanunu, the Turkish text of the Turkish Flag Law No. 2893 dated September 22, 1983, establishing the proportions, production and rules of usage of the flag of Turkey
- Turkey at Flags of the World