Flag of the Republic of Tatarstan
The Flag of Republic of Tatarstan (Russian: Флаг Татарста́на, Flag Tatarstana, Tatar: Cyrillic Татарстан байрагы, Latin Tatarstan bayrağı) was adopted 29 November 1991 in its present form.[1] It was designed by Täwil Ğiniät ulı Xaziäxmätev (pronounced [tæˈwil ɣiniɪˈæt uˈlɯ xæziəxˈmætəf]) .
The colours represent the Tatar majority (of whom are mostly Muslim), and the Russian minority.
According to official explanation, each colour has its own meaning:
- 1. The Red band symbolizes fight for happiness, bravery and courage of the Tatar people.
- 2. The White band symbolises Peace, concord and honest future, and peace between the two Tatar Majority and the Russian minority.
- 3. The Green band symbolises hope, freedom, wealth and the solidarity with Islam.[2]
In the seat of the Indepedentist movement (it wants Tatarstan to be totally Independent and free from the former USSR, now Russia). It is divided into two equal triangles by the top-left-to-right-bottom diagonal: the upper triangle is red and the lower triangle is green. In the centre of the National flag there is a white crescent halfmoon with a white star, The star and crescent are as in the Flag of Pakistan. The same symbols of Turkey’s flag. In the seat there were two other flags: the Turkey’s one and the Turkish Northern Cypriot Republic. Thereby implying its Turkic linkages. The Tatar flag was not designed with the colours of the national flag of Tatarstan, but the other way: the national flag’s colours are from this flag. This flag was later recognized by and endorsed into the Tatarstan Constitution as the flag of the Turkish peoples of Idel-Ural (Tatarstan, Chuvachia and Bashkiria). ""Idel" ("Ătal", in Chuvash), by the way, means "Volga" in a number of Turkic languages, and this flag supposedly stands for the Turkic peoples of this area — Tatars, Chuvash and Bashkir. The green-red flag with the Islamic crescent moon and star can be used by Tatars and Bashkirs only as they are Muslims. Chuvashes (Bolgars) are also Turkic, but profess Orthodox Christianity as does a group of Finno-Ugric nations which joined Idel-Ural State in 1918.