| Part of a series on the |
| Culture of Turkey |
|---|
 |
| Languages |
| Mythology and Folklore |
| Cuisine |
| Festivals |
| Religion |
| Art |
| Literature |
National symbols of Turkey are symbols used to represent the citizens of the Republic of Turkey in Turkey and around the world.
| Part of a series on the |
| Culture of Turkey |
|---|
| |
| Languages |
| Mythology and Folklore |
| Cuisine |
| Festivals |
| Religion |
| Art |
| Literature |
National symbols of Turkey are symbols used to represent the citizens of the Republic of Turkey in Turkey and around the world.
The Turkish flag is the national and official flag of the Republic of Turkey. [1] Consists of white crescent and star on a red background. The crescent and star flag was first adopted in 1844 during the Tanzimat period in the reign of Sultan Abdul Majid, and it was enacted as the national flag of the Republic of Turkey with the Turkish Flag Law No. 2994 on May 29, 1936, in the Republican period. On September 22, 1983, with the Turkish Flag Law No. 2893, the flag criteria were determined and the flag took its current form.
The flag, which has no official meaning, is blood red, according to legend, and represents the shed blood of martyrs. The image of the Turkish flag was formed with the crescent moon and a star reflected on these bloods at midnight. This legend is said to have taken place in the First Battle of Kosovo in 1389. [2]
The Turkish national anthem was written by the poet Mehmet Âkif Ersoy during the Turkish War of Independence in Anatolia. The poet expresses his belief that the War of Independence will be won, his confidence in the courage and self-sacrifice of the Turkish soldiers, and the Turkish nation's devotion to independence, God, homeland and religion. [3]
At the beginning of the Turkish War of Independence, the Ministry of Education organized a lyric competition in 1921 in order to provide the opportunity to win the War of Independence in a national spirit. The Ministry could not find any poem that could be a national anthem among the 724 poems that participated in the competition. For this reason, Mehmet Âkif, who did not participate in the competition because he thought that "the achievements of the nation cannot be praised with money", [4] changed his mind after the invitation letter written to him on February 5, 1921, by the Minister of Education, Hamdullah Suphi, and wrote the poem in which he addressed the Turkish army in his room in the Taceddin Lodge in Ankara. and submitted by proxy. [5] Hamdullah Suphi Bey decided that Âkif's poem should be read first among the soldiers at the front and sent the poem to the Western Front Command. This poem, which was sent, received great appreciation among the soldiers. [6]
The seven poems that passed the pre-selection were discussed in the Assembly session chaired by Mustafa Kemal on March 12, 1921. [4] Mehmet Âkif's poem was read by Hamdullah Suphi Bey at the assembly podium. [7] [8] [9] When the poem was read, the deputies became very excited and it was not considered necessary to read other poems. [4] Despite the objections of some deputies, Mehmet Akif's poem was accepted with enthusiastic applause. [5] Mehmet Âkif donated the five hundred lira award he won to Darülmesai, which was established to end their poverty by teaching poor women and their children to work. [5]
The composition of the poem was delayed for two years due to the ongoing war. On February 12, 1923, the Istanbul Education Directorate was given the task of opening a composition competition. [10] 24 composers participated in the second competition. However, due to the difficult conditions in the country, an evaluation that would determine the result could not be made. For this reason, the lyrics began to be read with different compositions in various parts of the country; Compositions by Ahmet Yekta Bey in Edirne, by İsmail Zühtü Bey in İzmir, by Osman Zeki Üngör in Ankara, by Ali Rıfat Bey and Zati Bey in Istanbul. [6]
The selection committee convened in Ankara in 1924 accepted the composition of Ali Rıfat Çağatay. [11] This composition was played until 1930 and was changed in 1930, and the current composition prepared in 1922 by the then Presidential Symphony Orchestra Conductor Osman Zeki Üngör was put into effect. Edgar Manas made the harmonization of the anthem, which consists of a total of nine quatrains and a fifth, and İhsan Servet Künçer arranged the band.
In 2013, various technical arrangements were made in order to eliminate the difficulty of reading the composition of the anthem. [12] As a result of these regulations, two versions emerged. The first version is prepared for the singing of young people and collective groups, while the second version is used at national and international official high-level ceremonial events. [13]
Turkey does not have an official coat of arms. Instead, where the coat of arms is required, de facto (Turkish identity card, Turkish passport, etc.) a red crescent and star without a background is used. With the abolition of the sultanate in 1922, the use of the coat of arms of the Ottoman Empire ended, and in 1925, the Ministry of Education organized a competition to determine a new state coat of arms. Painter Namık İsmail won the competition. [14] [15] However, this coat of arms was never officially enacted and used.
In August 2014, the ruling Justice and Development Party's Şanlıurfa Deputy Zeynep Karahan Uslu officially submitted the "Draft Law on Determination of the Official Coat of Arms of the Republic of Turkey" to the Group Presidency of her party for the design of a new coat of arms.
The Presidential Standard of Turkey represents Turkey and the President of Turkey in national and international arenas. It consists of a combination of the Turkish flag and the Presidential seal. Standard is hoisted to the flagpole at the residence of the president and during his visit, it remains hoisted day and night. In the office room, it is placed on the left back of the desk, and it is pulled to the chromed pole with the star and crescent in front of the car it is in. [16]
The emblem on the Fors consists of a golden yellow sun with 16 rays and 16 stars around the sun. There are two different interpretations of the meaning of the coat of arms. According to the first interpretation, the sun in the middle of the coat of arms, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, "The Republic of Turkey will stand forever." supports the promise of eternity and Turkey, and 16 stars symbolize the 16 Great Turkic Empires established throughout history. [17]
The national colors of Turkey are red and white on its flag. In addition, turquoise, which is a part of Turkish culture, is considered one of the colors of Turkey. These three colors are frequently used in various fields today.
The tulip, whose homeland is the Pamirs, Hindu Kush and Tian Shan, [18] was brought to Anatolia for the first time with the migration of Turks from Central Asia.
Throughout Turkic history, the gray wolf has been accepted as a sacred and national animal. The most important reason the gray wolf is considered sacred and is the national symbol of the Turks is the mythology of descent from a gray wolf. The Bozkurt is the symbol of Turkish nationalism today. It was declared a national symbol by Atatürk and used in many places. In the first years of the Republic, gray wolf pictures were printed on Turkish banknotes.
Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, also known as Köprülüzade Mehmed Fuad, was a highly influential Turkish sociologist, turkologist, scholar, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey. A descendant of the prominent Köprülü family, Fuat Köprülü was a key figure in the intersection of scholarship and politics in early 20th century Turkey.
The Ottoman Empire used various flags and naval ensigns during its history. The crescent and star came into use in the second half of the 18th century. A buyruldu (decree) from 1793 required that the ships of the Ottoman Navy were to use a red flag with the star and crescent in white. In 1844, a version of this flag, with a five-pointed star, was officially adopted as the Ottoman national flag. The decision to adopt a national flag was part of the Tanzimat reforms which aimed to modernize the Ottoman state in line with the laws and norms of contemporary European states and institutions.
The flag of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is the national flag of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and is based on the flag of Turkey, with the colors reversed and two additional horizontal red stripes at the top and bottom. The flag was drawn by the Turkish Cypriot artist Emin Çizenel. It was adopted in 1984 by Northern Cyprus, a self-declared state that is recognized only by Turkey, after its unilateral declaration of independence in 1983.
Osman Zeki Üngör was a Turkish composer, violin virtuoso and lyricist, who served as the first conductor of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Turkey.
Every sultan of the Ottoman Empire had his own monogram, called the tughra, which served as a royal symbol. A coat of arms in the European heraldic sense was created in the late 19th century. Hampton Court requested from the Ottoman Empire a coat of arms to be included in their collection. As the coat of arms had not been previously used in the Ottoman Empire, it was designed following this request of Mahmud II, and the final design was adopted by Sultan Abdul Hamid II on 17 April 1882.
Mehmet Akif Ersoy was a Turkish poet, writer, academic, politician, and the author of the Turkish National Anthem. Widely regarded as one of the premiere literary minds of his time, Ersoy is noted for his command of the Turkish language, as well as his patriotism and role in the Turkish War of Independence.
Nureddin Ibrahim Pasha, known as Nureddin İbrahim Konyar from 1934, was a Turkish military officer who served in the Ottoman Army during World War I and in the Turkish Army during the Western Front of the Turkish War of Independence. He was called Bearded Nureddin because being the only high-ranking Turkish officer during the Turkish War of Independence sporting a beard. He is known as one of the most important commanders of the war. He ordered several murders and massacres.
Turkey has no official national emblem, but the crescent and star design from the national flag is in use on Turkish passports, Turkish identity cards and at the diplomatic missions of Turkey.
Tevfik Fikret was the pseudonym of Mehmed Tevfik, an Ottoman educator and poet, who is considered the founder of the modern school of Turkish poetry.
Necip Hablemitoğlu was a Turkish historian and intellectual. He was assassinated in front of his home in 2002. The perpetrators of this assassination have still not been found. In Ergenekon trial testimony, however, detained suspects Osman Yıldırım claimed that Osman Gürbüz killed him by the motivation of detained suspects Veli Küçük and Muzaffer Tekin for a false flag operation.
The Sultanahmet demonstrations were a series of rallies in 1919 held in Istanbul to protest the occupation of the Ottoman Empire following the Armistice of Mudros, especially the occupation of Izmir by Greek forces after the First World War. The largest of the demonstrations took place in the Sultanahmet neighborhood on 23 May 1919, with 200,000 people attending.
Faik Ali Ozansoy was a Turkish politician, poet, and educator. He was the younger brother of Süleyman Nazif, an eminent man of letters and prominent member of the Committee for Union and Progress. Faik Ali was one of the foremost poets and writers of the Servet-i Fünun and Fecr-i Âti literary period. During World War I, Ozansoy served as the governor of Kütahya. Ozansoy is especially known for having saved the lives of thousands of Armenians during the Armenian genocide. Due to protecting the life of Armenian Christians, Ozansoy was known as the "governor of the infidels" by his contemporaries. On 24 April 2013, the day of remembrance for the Armenian Genocide, various prominent figures of both the Armenian and Turkish community visited his grave to pay tribute.
"İstiklâl Marşı" is the national anthem of both the Republic of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. It was officially adopted by the Grand National Assembly on 12 March 1921—two-and-a-half years before the 29 October 1923 establishment of the nation—both as a motivational musical saga for the troops fighting in the Turkish War of Independence, and as an aspirational anthem for a Republic that was yet to be established.
Reshid Akif Pasha, was an Ottoman statesman of Albanian descent during the last decades of the Ottoman Empire. Throughout his career as a politician, Reshid Akif Paşa served as governor, minister of the interior, and in the Council of State. He is also noted for providing important testimony in the aftermath of the Armenian genocide.
Hamdullah Suphi Tanrıöver was a highly influential Turkish poet, intellectual, diplomat and politician. He adopted his surname Tanrıöver after the Turkish Surname Law was enacted in 1934.
Parti Pehlivan after the Surname Law Mehmet Baskak was a Turkish wrestler and a guerilla leader in the Ottoman Empire of Bosniak decent, and an officer in the Turkish Army during World War I and the Turkish War of Independence. He was an important leader in Kuva-yi Milliye of the Aegean Region. After the declaration of the Turkish Republic he was granted land in Hacıhaliller, Manisa for his services and lived in Manisa until his death.
Black Musa or Sudanese Negro Musa (1880–1919) was a member of the Special Organization and a volunteer soldier in the Ottoman Empire; he participated in every war involving the empire from the Italo-Turkish War to World War I. He is known as Kuşcubaşı Eşref's aide and amir. Musa was seen as one of the faces of anti-colonialism in the Ottoman Empire, and was renowned for his loyalty to the state.
Abdullah Hilmi Tunalı was a Turkish politician, member of the Chamber of Deputies, and later member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey during the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd terms.
The proclamation of the Republic of Turkey, formally declared during the session of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on 29 October 1923, signifies the definitive establishment of Turkey's governance structure as a republic. This historic milestone was realized through the acceptance of a constitutional amendment proposal crafted by Mustafa Kemal Pasha.
Cumhuriyetin ilk yıllarında Türkiye'nin kendi armasını yapmak için girişimler olmuş. Ancak bir türlü hayata geçirilemeyen bu proje kapsamında, 1927 yılında Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı tarafından bir yarışma açılmış. Birçok eserin katıldığı yarışmada Namık İsmail'in arması birincilik almış. Diğer tüm armalar gibi kalkan içerisinde bulunan armanın zemini kırmızıymış. Merkezinde Türk Bayrağını temsil eden ay yıldızın bulunduğu armanın alt kısmında Oğuz menkıbesini simgeleyen bir kurt resmi bulunuyormuş. Kurdun ayaklarının altında ise eski bir Türk silahı 'harbe' bulunuyormuş. Kalkanın altında bulunan İstiklal Madalyası ise harbi ve bunun neticesini muhafaza etmeyi simgeliyormuş. Başak ve meşe yapraklarıyla sarılı armanın ortasında ise Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'ni simgeleyen T.C harfleri varmış. Ancak Mustafa Kemal Atatürk'ün de çok istediği bu arma bir türlü resmi şekle sokulamadı.
