Home > News > Thou shalt not desecrate this flag

Little do they know that their owners are facing a legal battle about the conditions that they are being kept in. Not, as you might think, because they are being maltreated — quite the opposite in fact, the farmers in this case cared for their tribe too well.

When Þerife Çankhoðlu found an old Turkish flag in the bin she thought it would be a good sunshade for her goats. With her husband's help she hoisted the flag up and tied it to the four posts. The sun shone on the flag and the goats relaxed in the welcome shadow that it cast. Very soon, though, the couple were reported to the police; upon their arrival the farmers were arrested and are now being taken to court for bringing the flag into disrepute.

For the majority of Turks their flag is a highly respected symbol and its use is strictly governed and protected by law. Law 2893 came into force in 1983 and covers the reasons and occasions when the flag may be used and how. The flag may be draped across the coffins of Presidents and martyrs, but not average civilians. At the official opening of Atatürk statues and when swearing in new military recruits, one may put the flag on a table, but at no other time. According to the seventh statute of the same law one may not use a flag that is "torn, unstitched, dirty, faded, wrinkled or that has holes in it", and it is illegal to place the flag in places that are not worthy of it (ie the goat pen). All of these offences are strictly punishable. It is against the law to wear the flag symbols on a T-shirt, so at national football matches Turkish fans wear red and white rather than wear the flag symbol. It is forbidden to put the flag anywhere it may be sat on or trodden on. There is a prohibition on political parties, clubs and charities using the symbol. One may not insult or disrespect the flag in writing, by one's actions or orally. You may not burn, rip or throw the flag to the ground.

The current Turkish flag came into being in 1923 when the Republic was established, although red has been a prominent Turkish colour for 700 years. The star and crescent are Muslim symbols, but have a long history in Asia Minor before Islam and the crescent was the emblem of the Ottoman rulers. Many Muslim countries use the crescent as an emblem but Saudi Arabia, home of the holiest sites of Islam, does not. Indeed, most of the countries that use it were once under Turkish influence of one kind or another (ie Tunisia and Algeria, which were Turkish before they were French). The crescent may have been introduced to Islam by the Turks rather than the other way around.

When questioned, most Turks will tell you that the red of the flag represents the blood of the soldiers who died in their war of liberation (1920-1923) and the moon was reflected in their pools of blood. Pride in the flag is real; when my Turkish mainland boyfriend and I visited St Hilarion this summer the first thing he noticed on entering the ancient castle was that the flag was a little tattered. He made a point of telling the ticket man that it should be replaced with a pristine new flag.

The goat incident is just one of many controversies that the flag features in. Notoriously the two Leeds United fans killed in Istanbul in 2003 were murdered for disrespecting the flag. It is alleged that they wiped it across, their bums. Turkish football fans have warned all English football fans that when in Turkey they should show respect for the flag or face the consequences. Turks cannot comprehend the English habit of wearing the Union Jack as shorts or even G-strings. In mid-September this year in Manisa, at the funeral of a soldier killed by a PKK mine, the crowd rioted and attacked the HQ of Dehap, the Turkish political party which specially represents Kurds. They were only calmed when a soldier scaled the Dehap building and hung a flag from its main balcony. Kurdish leaders are frequently pressed to show overt allegiance to the flag.

Proponents of the flag law argue that the flag is the most revered symbol of the Turkish republic. The prohibitions on its use by any particular group mean that the flag does not represent the" views of any particular political party or any particular political philosophy. The flag is not simply another "idea" or "point of view" competing for recognition in the marketplace of ideas. Millions and millions of Turks regard it with an almost mystical reverence, regardless of the sort of social, political or philosophical beliefs they may have. To them, desecration of the flag is not an essential part of any exposition of ideas but rather the equivalent of an inarticulate grunt or roar that is most likely to be indulged in to antagonise others.

Although the farmers who protected their goats used an old binned flag, their actions inflamed the populace. Although they meant no offence they would have done well to remember the words of the US civil war poem: "Shoot if you must, this old grey head, but spare your country's flag."

2005-12-17

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