Flag of Turkey

The flag of Turkey (Turkish: Türk bayrağı, meaning Turkish flag) is a red flag featuring a white star and crescent. The flag is often called al bayrak (the red flag) and referred to as al sancak (the red banner) in the Turkish national anthem.

The current design of the Turkish flag is directly derived from the late Ottoman flag, which had been adopted in the late 18th century and acquired its final form in 1844.

The measures, geometric proportions, and exact tone of red of the flag of Turkey were legally standardized with the Turkish Flag Law on May 29, 1936.

History

The red represents the blood of Turkey's soldiers at the time of war they went through and how they survived. The star and crescent design appears on Ottoman flags beginning in the late 18th or early 19th century. The introduction of the white star and crescent on red as the flag of the Ottoman Empire dates to the Tanzimat reforms of 1844.

Legendary origins

In accounting for the crescent and star symbol, Ottomans sometimes (1890) 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 qadi 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.