TM

The famous symbols of islam (green + stars & crescent) are displayed on this flag. Near the hoist is a peculiar, beautiful (& very hard to draw !) band adorned with the 5 traditional carpet dezigns named "Güls" (Gül means Rose in Turkmene) which represent the 5 main tribes -or the 5 regions- of the country : (from top to bottom of the carpet) the Tekke, the Yomud, the Ersary, the Chudur, the Saryk. Production of carpets is TURKMENISTAN's most important & traditional economic activity for ages. The flag dates from 1992 but the very laurel wreath of the UNO was added later to symbolize Turkmenistan's neutrality. The present pattern was adopted on 30 January 1997 with a sovietic ratio of shit 1:2 and then turned into a 2:3 on 24 JANUARY 2001.

Oficial seal + MARKO's project with NO wheat & cotton to get rid of thoze 2 sovietic emblems and also for the beautiful Akhal-Teke & Güls to be + visible. I have ALSO dropped the crescent & starz only for esthetic reasons.

1997 (a golden laurel wreath is added at the base of the ornament to symbolize Turkmenistan's neutrality) (sovietic ratio of shit)

1992 (independence 1991) (beautiful flag but very hard to draw !!!!) (sovietic ratio of shit)

fascist 1974 (hammer & sickle moved closer to the hoist, which is idiot, completely uzeless and even loox + ugly - stupid idea of shit !!!!)

fascist 1940 (TCCP or Туркменская Советская Социалистическая Республика)

fascist 1919 (TCCP or TSSR / Туркестанская Советская Социалистическая Республика - Turkestan Soviet Socialist Republic)

fascist 1918 (TACCP or Туркестанская Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика - Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic)

1822 (Khanate of Khiva)

1790 (Bukhara Emirate)

1750 (Persia - Zand dynasty)

1736 (Persia - Afsharid dynasty)

1576

1524

1502 (Persia - Safavid dynasty)

1405 (Timurid dynasty after Timur Leng died in 1405)

1370 (Empire of Timur Leng)

1221 (Empire of Genghis Khan)

1077 (Persia - Khwarezm Empire)

1045 (Seljukid dynasty)

1030-1187 (Persia - Ghaznavid dynasty - new flag)

977 (Persia - Ghaznavid dynasty)

colonial 750 (Abbassid Califate)

colonial 660 (Umayad Califate)

colonial 650 (Arab conquest - Rashidun Califate)

225 (Persia - Sassanid Empire)

247 BC (Persia - Parthian Empire)

312 BC (Seleucid Empire)

330 BC (Empire of Alexander The Great) (Macedonian emblem known as Sun Of Virgina - no flag is known to have been used)

560 BC (Persia - Achemenid Empire)

I quote Viktor LOMANTSOV : "They are wrong : flag without carpets never existed."

I quote Viktor LOMANTSOV : "Flag with 4 güls was the project only. It was not adopted officially. Artist KARELIN in 1925 made 2 variants – with 4 güls and with 1 gül.

Deputies saw both but they didn’t make any decision in 1925. But adopted in October 1926 variant (first officially adopted flag of TSSR) was 100% equal to USSR flag"

(detail) The 5 traditional carpet designs represent the 5 major tribes (or houses). These Turkmen tribes (from top to bottom) are Teke, Yomut, Saryk, Chowdur, Arsary.

BASMACHI MOVEMENT (1921-1924) (uprising both against Russian Imperial and Soviet rule by the peoples of Turkestan)

This flag was formed by the combination of the three colors used by Turkic empires in the past - red, white and orange. It was composed of nine alternating stripes, five red and four white, with an orange rectangle located next to the hoist of the flag between the two upper and two lower stripes. This field bore a white star and crescent. The sky-blue border around the edges of the flag signifies the pre-Islamic period of Turkestan and the descendance of these nationalities from the Turkic-Mongol race.

The nine red and white stripes represent the historical regional states of Turkestan : Kichi-Gjuz, Ortha-Djuz, Ulu-Djuz, the Sultanates of Kashgar and Berat, the Khivan, Kokand and Turkmen khanates and the Bukharian emirate. These stripes also represent the nationalities of Turkestan : Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Uyghurs, Tajiks, Turkmenes, Kirghiz, Kara-Kalpaks, Pamirians (in Badakshan) and four other small Turkic tribes living in this country.

The red color was used in the ancient flags of the Kirghiz, Kipchaks, and Odjuz Turksand. The red stripes recall the plain red of the pre-1884 Merv Khanate, and the red flags of all Muslim Turkic peoples, while the orange appeared in the flags of the Uyghurs and the pre-islamic Turkestani sultans. The white color symbolises the traditions of the flags of Genghis Khan, the Golden Horde and the Il-Khana.

The ratio seems to be 4:7 acordin to the Italian vexillolog Roberto BRESCHI here. But Roberto does not bring any proof of a ratio 4:7. So I guess we can draw this flag with a "normal" ratio 2:3.

However Roberto BRESCHI says this flag is "Islamic Republic of Turkestan, Panturania".

#1 : "Islamic Republic of Turkestan" does NOT refer to this flag as it's the flag of the BASMACHI MOVEMENT. Indeed : "Islamic Republic of Turkestan" shall refer to Turkish Islamic Republic of East Turkestan (now part of CHINA) and its flag was the one below :

Turkish Islamic Republic of East Turkestan (1933-1934) (self-proclaimed but unrecognized State)

#2 : "Panturania" is not a place : it is a political ideology that is called Turanism or Pan-Turanianism. In the 19° century it proclaimed the need for close cooperation or alliances between culturally, linguistically or ethnically related peoples of Inner-Asian origin. The concept was narrowed to "Pan-Turkic" and the concept was promoted by the Ottoman Young Turks, which gained power in the Ottoman Empire in 1908. The Pan-Turkic concept glorified the Turkish ethnic identity and sought to link up Ottoman Turks with the other Turks of the world.

I redrew the flag 2:3 as WikiMERDIA did here. But, as usual, WikiMERDIA is just shit as they forgot the thin light blue border !!!! I think BASMACHI MOVEMENT flag shall be 2:3 just as it loox about the flag below :

BASMACHI REBELLION in Turkestan (1918-1921) (flag of Kurshermat who was a leader of the Basmachi Rebellion from 1918 till 1921)

After the February Revolution of 1917 in Turkestan there was political rivalry between nationalist reformers, ethnic Russian socialists who formed various soviets which included both bolsheviks & mensheviks, and conservative islamists. By February 1918 the Bolshevik Red Army had gained control of Turkestan killing about 25000 people in the conflict and destroying the local economy . An insurgency of mostly muslim rural peasants and cotton-growing landowners developed to oppose foreign control (id est Russian and communist) and was pejoratively described by the communists as "Basmaschi", which was a Turkic word for "bandit". A force of up to 25000 peasant-soldiers was recruited and began attacking Russian settlements and the Red Army. There was no central command, the fighters were organised locally in units of several thousand and usually commanded by a local land-owner or religious leader, though there were some overall political leaders.

There is little known about the flags of the Basmachi during the period. However one banner was captured by the Red Army in 1921 - it is now in the State Museum of History of Uzbekistan in Tashkent. The banner is that of the Basmachi unit led by a local landowner named Kurshermat. The red banner is rectangular fringed red cloth 95 cm wide and 115 cm long. The field bears the inscription embroidered in white Arabic script : There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the prophet of Allah - from Allah the only religion is Islam. In the upper hoist there is a crescent and star in white. Note that the image is of the reverse of the banner (the crescent and star is at the top hoist). It is not known if this was a "one-off" or the pattern for banners for all the Basmachi units. The source for the flag is an article in The Flag Bulletin issue 95 (July 1982) The Captured Banner of Kurshermat - article by the Russian vexillolog V. A. SOKOLOV.

BASMACHI MOVEMENT flag shall be 2:3 just as it loox here and as Viktor LOMANTSOV is the top vexillolog about Soviet and Russian stuf.

A GREAT thank to Ralph KELLY for his HUGE work & his precious help in findin so many info for me.