Turkmenistan

	Flag of Turkmenistan
Adopted	January 24, 2001
Designed by	(unknown)
Proportions	2:3

The flag of Turkmenistan is green with a vertical red stripe near the hoist side, containing five tribal guls (designs used in producing carpets) stacked above two crossed olive branches; a white crescent moon with five white stars appear in the upper corner of the field just to the fly side of the red stripe. ^[2]

Symbolism

The green background and the white crescent moon represents Islam.
The five white stars represent the regions or welayats of Turkmenistan.
The five carpet guls (motifs) are associated with the ancient tribes of Salor, Tekke, Saryk, Yomut, and Chaudor. The traditional patterns have for centuries been woven into the rich carpets for which the Turkmen are famous. ^[3]
The wreath is one of the odder parts of the flag, added against the rules of heraldry and breaking up the carpet pattern. It was added as an afterthought to represent the "status of permanent neutrality," which was accepted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 12, 1995. ^[4]

History

The Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic was founded (upgraded from an autonomous Soviet socialist republic) in 1925 on the territory ceded by the Russian SFSR as one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union. Its first flag was adopted March 2, 1937 — it was a red banner with golden initials "T.S.S.R." in the upper hoist corner. In 1940 the flag had to be changed due to adoption of the Cyrillic script for the Turkmen language: the new initials were "ТССР". ^[5]

In 1953, when a new pattern for Soviet flags was introduced, the Turkmen SSR adopted a flag based on the flag of the Soviet Union with two horizontal light blue stripes running through it.

The Republic of Turkmenistan was founded on October 27, 1991, when it proclaimed its independence from the Soviet Union. On February 19, 1992, the republic adopted a flag similar to the current design (but with aspect ratio 1:2). The design of the "rug" was insignificantly modified in 1997 and 2001.

In 2002 Turkmen names for months and days of the week were changed, thus February became Baýdak aý, literally "the month of the flag". Old names were restored in 2008. ^[6]