![Kazakhstan cheering at boxing 2018 YOG 03](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Kazakhstan_cheering_at_boxing_2018_YOG_03.jpg)
The flag of
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
or Kazakh flag ( kk, Қазақстан туы, ; russian: Флаг Казахстана, translit=Flag Kazakhstana) was adopted on 4 June 1992, replacing the
flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic
The flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted by the Kazakh government on 24 January 1953. The flag resembles the flag of the Soviet Union in defaced form with a 2/9 horizontal blue (azure) bar in the lower part of the flag and th ...
. The flag was designed by
Shaken Niyazbekov.
Description
The national flag of the
Republic of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbekis ...
has a gold sun with 32 rays above a soaring golden
steppe eagle
The steppe eagle (''Aquila nipalensis'') is a large bird of prey. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. The steppe eagle's well-feathered legs illustrate it to be a member of the subfamily Aquilinae, also known as the "booted ...
, both centered on a turquoise background; the hoist side displays a national ornamental pattern called "koshkar-muiz" (the horns of the ram) in gold; the blue colour is of religious significance to the
Turkic peoples of the country, and so symbolises cultural and ethnic unity; it also represents the
endless sky as well as water; the sun, a source of life and energy, exemplifies wealth and plenitude; the sun's rays are shaped like grain, which is the basis of abundance and prosperity; the eagle has appeared on the flags of
Kazakh tribes for centuries and represents freedom, power, and the flight to the future. The width of the flag to its length is 1:2.
Symbolism
The gold and turquoise colours were inherited from the former Soviet flag which were the gold from the
hammer and sickle and the turquoise bar from the bottom of the flag. The pattern represents the art and cultural traditions of the old
Khanate
A khaganate or khanate was a polity ruled by a khan, khagan, khatun, or khanum. That political territory was typically found on the Eurasian Steppe and could be equivalent in status to tribal chiefdom, principality, kingdom or empire.
Mong ...
and the
Kazakh people
The Kazakhs (also spelled Qazaqs; Kazakh: , , , , , ; the English name is transliterated from Russian; russian: казахи) are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group native to northern parts of Central Asia, chiefly Kazakhstan, but also parts ...
. The turquoise background symbolises the peace, freedom, cultural, and ethnic unity of Kazakh people including the various
Turkic people
The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West Asia, West, Central Asia, Central, East Asia, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose memb ...
that make up the present-day population such as the
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs (also spelled Qazaqs; Kazakh: , , , , , ; the English name is transliterated from Russian; russian: казахи) are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group native to northern parts of Central Asia, chiefly Kazakhstan, but also parts o ...
,
Tatars
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different ,
Uyghurs
The Uyghurs; ; ; ; zh, s=, t=, p=Wéiwú'ěr, IPA: ( ), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia. The Uyghur ...
,
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks ( uz, , , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the wider Central Asian region, being among the largest Turkic ethnic group in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakh and Karakalpak mino ...
, as well as the significant Indo-European peoples. The sun represents a source of life and energy. It is also a symbol of wealth and abundance; the sun's rays are a symbol of the steppe's
grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
which is the basis of abundance and prosperity.
People of different
Kazakh tribes
A ''zhuz'' ( kz, ٴجۇز , Жүз, translit=Jüz, , also translated as " horde") is one of the three main territorial and tribal divisions in the Kypchak Plain area that covers much of the contemporary Kazakhstan. It represents the main tribal ...
had the golden eagle on their flags for centuries. The eagle symbolises the power of the state. For the modern nation of Kazakhstan the eagle is a symbol of independence, freedom and flight to the future.
History
Kazakh Khanate
![Flag of the Kazakh Khanate](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Flag_of_the_Kazakh_Khanate.svg)
The
Kazakh Khanate
The Kazakh Khanate ( kk, Қазақ Хандығы, , ), in eastern sources known as Ulus of the Kazakhs, Ulus of Jochi, Yurt of Urus, was a Kazakh state in Central Asia, successor of the Golden Horde existing from the 15th to 19th century, ...
was decentralized state without an agreed upon flag. There is an alleged blue flag with white
endless knot
Endless knot in a Burmese Pali manuscript
The endless knot or eternal knot is a symbolic knot and one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols. It is an important symbol in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. It is an important cultural marker in place ...
and three white 5-pointed stars in the hoist side of the flag.
The depicted flag sometimes is considered to not be connected to Khanate. The ornament shown in the flag isn't observed by any other
Turkic countries, moreover it is an
endless knot
Endless knot in a Burmese Pali manuscript
The endless knot or eternal knot is a symbolic knot and one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols. It is an important symbol in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. It is an important cultural marker in place ...
, which takes part in Buddhist and Hinduist cultures, while Kazakhs were mostly Muslims.
Although the ornament is considered to not be Kazakh, it still takes part in Kazakh culture. Some historians say that the ornament could get to Kazakhs by trading with Chinese,
Oirats
Oirats ( mn, Ойрад, ''Oirad'', or , Oird; xal-RU, Өөрд; zh, 瓦剌; in the past, also Eleuths) are the westernmost group of the Mongols whose ancestral home is in the Altai region of Siberia, Xinjiang and western Mongolia.
Histor ...
, or
Dzungars
The Dzungar people (also written as Zunghar; from the Mongolian words , meaning 'left hand') were the many Mongol Oirat tribes who formed and maintained the Dzungar Khanate in the 17th and 18th centuries. Historically they were one of major tr ...
, since ancient Turks and Chinese maintained close relationships.
Russian Empire
![Flag of Russia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Flag_of_Russia.svg)
In 1882, the Kazakh Khanate was disestablished when Russia invaded the Kazakh Steppe. Kazakh lands were divided in provinces and all of them used the flag of Russian Empire.
Central Asian Revolt
![Amangeldy Flag](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Amangeldy_Flag.svg)
In 1916, Russia required Muslim people of central Asia to join Russian military forces. Russian colonial regime and economic instability lead to the
Central Asian Revolt
The Basmachi movement (russian: Басмачество, ''Basmachestvo'', derived from Uzbek: "Basmachi" meaning "bandits") was an uprising against Russian Imperial and Soviet rule by the Muslim peoples of Central Asia.
The movement's roots l ...
. Amongst Kazakhs,
Amangeldy Imanov Amangeldy (also spelled Amangeldi) is a given name of Central Asian origin. Notable people with the name include:
* Amangeldy Aytaly (1939–2022), Kazakh academic and politician
* Amangeldy Hydyr (born 1951), Turkmenistani painter
*Amangeldy Mural ...
was leading figure in the revolts. He and his associated used red flag with the yellow text; blue half-moon in the top-left; blue bow, spear and an axe crossed on red background.
The text on the flag is in Arabic script, since Kazakh's writing system was Arabic prior to 1929. The text on the flag says: "''Flag of warrior leader, Amangeldy batyr''" (Batyr means hero in Kazakh).
Alash Autonomy
During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Russia was exhausted as it wasn't ready for war. This was the reason for the food shortages, which occurred even in major cities like Petrograd. First revolution, started because of an economic instability led to the Russian ministers in charge of Central Asia to create the
Alash party and found their own
autonomy
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...
on territory of modern
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
.
Alasb state again lacked one agreed flag, however the Autonomy had their proposed flags.
Alikhan Bukeikhanov
Alikhan Nurmukhameduly Bukeikhanov,, Arabic graphics: ٴالىيحان نۇرمۇحامەدۇلى بوكەيحان, romanized: ''Älihan Nūrmūhamedūly Bökeihan'', pronunciation: ləj'χɑn no̙r'mo̙hɑmmjed'o̙ɫə bøkej'χɑn or Bökeih ...
and
Barlybek Syrtanov proposed the flag with green, yellow, red stripes and white crescent with yellow star in top-left.
The direction of stripes is not mentioned. Sometimes people use the logo of
Kazak, the journal published by members of Alash, as a flag of the Autonomy. This variant of flag depicts a yellow
yurt
A yurt (from the Turkic languages) or ger ( Mongolian) is a portable, round tent covered and insulated with skins or felt and traditionally used as a dwelling by several distinct nomadic groups in the steppes and mountains of Central Asia. ...
on a white background.
The most commonly used flag of the Alash Autonomy is yellow crescent with star on a red background, however there is no evidence that flag was ever used.
File:Proposed Flag of the Alash Autonomy.svg, Alash Autonomy
The Alash Autonomy ( kk, Алаш Автономиясы; Alaş Avtonomiasy, italic=no, ; russian: Алашская автономия, italic=no, ) was a Kazakh provisional government, or proto-state, located mainly in Central Asia, and partly ...
from 1917 to 1920
File:Proposed Flag of the Alash Autonomy2.svg, Second variant
File:Flag of Alash Autonomy.svg, Flag of the Alash Autonomy, which is mentioned in 1918
File:Flag of the Alash Autonomy.svg, Flag presented by Professor Trembitsky, no confirmation of use, the sources he used are unknown
Soviet Kazakhstan
After the victory of the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
in the
Russian Civil War
, date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...
, The Soviets consolidated Alash into the newly forming Kazakh Autonomy, resulting in the establishment of the
Kazakh Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic
The Kazakh Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic (russian: Казахская Автономная Социалистическая Советская Республика; kk, Qazaq Aptonom Sotsijalistik Sovettik Respublikasь), abbreviated as K ...
in 1920.
The first flag of the Kazakh ASSR consisted of two lines of yellow text in the canton, surrounded with a yellow line, reading "KSSR" (Kazakh SSR), and "R.F." (
Russian Federation
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
).
Kazakhstan was a part of the Russian Federation until the 1937 establishment of the
Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic
; kk, Қазақ Советтік Социалистік Республикасы)
*1991: Republic of Kazakhstan (russian: Республика Казахстан; kk, Қазақстан Республикасы)
, linking_name = the ...
within the Union, and, subsequently, changed its flag. This flag had the
hammer and sickle in the canton and the name of the republic in Kazakh and Russian under it. The Kazakh name was written in Latin, as the
writing system of Kazakh changed in 1929 from Arabic to Latin.
![Flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Flag_of_the_Kazakh_Soviet_Socialist_Republic.svg)
The final change of flag of the flag of the Kazakh SSR happened in 1953, as all Soviet republics redesigned their flags. This flag consisted of a hammer and a sickle with a star above it and a light blue horizontal stripe on a red background. The flag was briefly used after Kazakhstan gained its independence in December 1991.
Republic of Kazakhstan
Unlike other formerly Soviet nations, like
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
,
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
or
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, Kazakhstan did not have an official flag before becoming part of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan kept its Soviet flag up until 4 June 1992.
The Government of Kazakhstan organized a contest on 2 January 1992, which received these proposed flags:
File:Kazakhstan 1991 Flag Proposal 1.svg, Proposed Flag depicting yellow circle with 8-pointed star in it, on blue background.
File:Kazakhstan 1991 Flag Proposal 2.svg, Flag with green, yellow and blue vertical stripes
File:Kazakhstan 1991 Flag Proposal 3.svg, Flag with yellow, blue and red horizontal stripes and yellow crescent with stars
File:Kazakhstan 1991 Flag Proposal 4.svg, Flag depicting two squares with yellow outline forming 8-pointed star on a blue background.
File:Kazakhstan 1991 Flag Proposal 5.svg, Flag depicting Shanyraq (The top of yurts) with crescent in center and sun in the top-left
File:Kazakhstan 1991 Flag Proposal 6.svg, Flag with blue, white, green stripes and crescent with stars, which have a picture of wolf in it.
![Egemen Archive Nazarbayev Flag](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Egemen_Archive_Nazarbayev_Flag.jpg)
The designer of the current flag,
Shaken Niyazbekov, had originally colored the ornament red. This was changed in July 1992 to the current shade of gold.
Variants
File:Kazakhstan Armed Forces Flag.svg, Flag for the Kazakh armed forces, featuring a red star
File:Flag of the President of Kazakhstan.svg, Presidential standard, featuring the national emblem
A national emblem is an emblem or seal that is reserved for use by a nation state or multi-national state as a symbol of that nation. Many nations have a seal or emblem in addition to a national flag
A national flag is a flag that represents ...
Gallery
File:Alexander Vinokourov 2, London 2012 Time Trial - Aug 2012.jpg, Alexander Vinokurov during the Men's cycling event at the 2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
in London donning the Kazakh flags on rims.
File:Kazakhstan embassy in Moscow.jpg, The Kazakh flag at Embassy of Kazakhstan in Moscow
The Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Moscow (russian: Посольство Республики Казахстан в Российской Федерации) is the chief diplomatic mission of Kazakhstan in the Russian Federation. It is l ...
.
File:T-72B -TankBiathlon2013-28.jpg, T-72
The T-72 is a family of Soviet/Russian main battle tanks that entered production in 1969. The T-72 was a development of the T-64, which was troubled by high costs and its reliance on immature developmental technology. About 25,000 T-72 tanks ha ...
tank in the national colours.
File:Kazakhstan cheering at boxing 2018 YOG 03.jpg, A crowd with the flag of Kazakhstan.
File:Maimarkt Mannheim 2014 - Flagge Kasachstans.JPG, A flag of Kazakhstan flying.
File:Kazakhstan vs. Austria at 2017 IIHF World Championship Division I 03.jpg, Spectators with the Kazakh flag.
File:Embassy of Kazakhstan in Sweden.JPG, The flag of Kazakhstan hanging at the Kazakh Embassy in Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
.
File:Kazakh Cadets in Moscow Parade.jpg, Kazakh contingent during the 2015 Moscow Victory Day Parade with the national flag.
File:Павильон Универсиады 2017 в Казани 2.jpg, The national flag hanging vertically.
See also
*
Emblem of Kazakhstan
, supporters = Tulpar
, compartment =
, motto = QAZAQSTAN
, orders =
, other_elements =
, use = The Cyrillic-text version used between 1992 and 2018
, image2=Emblem of Kazakhstan.svg, image2_captio ...
*
Flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic
The flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted by the Kazakh government on 24 January 1953. The flag resembles the flag of the Soviet Union in defaced form with a 2/9 horizontal blue (azure) bar in the lower part of the flag and th ...
*
List of Kazakh flags
This is a list of flags used in Kazakhstan.
National flag
Presidential flag
Military flags
Naval flags
Rank flag
Non-Military Security Forces Flag
Administrative divisions
Cities with special status
Regions
Districts
Cities/Town ...
References
External links
*
Kazakhstan - Vexillographia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flag Of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
National symbols of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
1992 establishments in Kazakhstan