Three Flags: Bangladesh, Turkmenistan and Denmark
An (occasionally reoccurring) feature on flags
One of the new features of my day job these past few years is that we get to see a lot more protests than we did when I first started. Most of these protests are pretty obvious and well-known to us ahead of time, but occasionally, you’ll get a protest you weren’t expecting. Occasionally, you’ll see flags you don’t recognize and signs with slogans you haven’t heard before and wonder, ‘Huh, what the heck is going on?’1
So it was with the small protest in solidarity with Bangladesh’s Quota Reform Movement. At first, I thought it was just the local student association posing for pictures and having a get-together. But they had signs. They had slogans. And I am always curious (‘nosy’ and ‘suspicious’ could also apply, I’ll admit) so I dug around on the internet a little bit, and hoo boy. A lot was going on in Bangladesh and the American mainstream media, had, of course, totally ignored it.2
The origin story of the flag of Bangladesh also got me thinking about other flags with awesome origin stories which reminded me of Denmark. Turkmenistan just got to come along for the ride on this post because I don’t think I’ve ever done a deep dive on their flag before.
First up, Bangladesh:
Right off the bat, I like this flag. There’s something about the contrast of the dark green with the red circle that just makes this pop. The red draws the eye so much it’s almost hard to look at it and I love the shade of the green. If you look close enough, you’ll notice that the red circle is ever-so-slightly off-center. I thought there was a historical/origin story-based reason for that, but it’s much cooler: it’s moved closer to the hoist so it appears to be centered when the flag is flying.
There are (per Wikipedia) many interpretations of this flag, but in general, the green is for the lushness of the landscape and the red circle symbolizes the blood of the martyrs.
To me, what’s cool about this flag is this:
The first version of the flag was designed and made by a section of student leaders and activists of the Swadheen Bangla Nucleus on 6 June 1970, at room 108 of Iqbal Hall (now Sergeant Zahurul Haq Hall), Dhaka University, students involved with the design were namely Kazi Aref Ahmed, ASM Abdur Rab, Shahjahan Siraj, Manirul Islam (Marshal Moni), Swapan Kumar Choudhury, Quamrul Alam Khan Khasru, Hasanul Haq Inu, and Yousuf Salahuddin Ahmed. The flag was made from clothes donated by Bazlur Rahman Lasker, the owner of Apollo Tailors, Dhaka New Market.
Think about all the flags in the world and their origin stories. Americans all know about Betsy Ross and sewing the flag, but we don’t know exactly where she did it and where she got the materials from. (I don’t know for sure, but looking at Google Maps, it sure seems like Sergeant Zahurul Haq Hall is still in use as what I’m guessing is a dorm? I don’t know what Rm. 108 was used for, but can you imagine if it was your dorm room? How wild would that be?)
The original version of the flag used during the 1971 Liberation War had an outline of Bangladesh in the center of the red circle (which, had they kept it, would mean that they would have joined Kosovo and Cyprus in the ‘our flags have our country outlines on them’ club) but at the time, they removed it because they were concerned about getting the outline properly placed on the back of the flag.
So, what was going on in Bangladesh? The TL;DR version is that the government had a quota system that kept 30% of government jobs for descendants of freedom fighters who fought in the Liberation War. Students- the main drivers of the movement- wanted the jobs to be assigned on merit. (There have been protests about this before in 2018 as well. As of this writing the Supreme Court has scaled back most of the quota system, which says a lot about the strength of student activism in Bangladesh, but given the history of it, it’s not surprising that the government takes them seriously.)
Next up, Denmark:
I am a sucker for a good Nordic Cross, though if I had to pick a favorite, Finland, the Aaland Islands, and the Faroe Islands might round out my top three, but Denmark is the proverbial O.G of this flag design and, more to the point, of national flags in general.
That’s right, this bad boy right here is generally thought to be one of the oldest flags in the world. There are two dates to choose from here: May 8th, 1625 which was 399 years ago (400 next year!) when it was recognized as the national flag. Or you could go back further, to June 15th, 1219 (805 years ago) when King Valdemar II of Denmark was having a bad day courtesy of the local Estonian forces. The legend goes that when the Danes were hard-pressed at the Battle of Lyndanisse, the Archbishop of Lund Anders Sunesen raised his hands to the sky in prayer, and as long as he kept his hands raised, the Danes held the line. Naturally, he couldn’t keep that up forever, so when, in exhaustion, he could hold his arms up no longer, the Danes were on the verge of defeat when a red flag with a white cross fell from the sky and they won the day.
How’s that for an epic origin story?
In terms of meaning beyond ‘it’s been a symbol of Danish Kings and Queens for centuries’, there’s not much more out there aside from the Dannebrog Legend. The Google AI Overview (which I do not trust) says this:
The Danish flag, also known as the Dannebrog has multiple meanings:
Cross: Represents Christianity
White: Symbolizes honesty and peace
Red: Represents bravery, valor, and strength
Celebration: Danes sometimes place the Dannebrog on tables to symbolize joy during celebrations.
I have no idea if that’s true, but it seems more credible than any of the other Google AI Overview things that I’ve seen floating around on the internet.
Finally, Turkmenistan:
Hailed by the internet as one of the most complicated flags in the world, the flag of Turkmenistan would be almost impossible to draw freehand. However, if you do a little digging into the flag and its meaning, you find out that it’s actually kind of a cool flag…
It was officially introduced in February of 1992 to replace the old Soviet-era flag and the ratio was tweaked to a 2:3 and updated in January of 2001. The white crescent is a symbol of Islam and the five stars represent the five regions of the country and the Five Pillars of Islam. On the green field, near the hoist, you have a symbolic representation of the country’s famous carpet industry. (TIL: Turkmenistan has a famous carpet industry.)
There’s a whole mess of other theories about the symbolism as well. Some claim that the green field stands for life, land, grass, prosperity, and peace, while the moon is for the clear sky above the people of Turkmenistan and the stars are for the five provinces. Multiple newspapers also chimed in with their takes after this flag was adopted, my favorite being:
They also reported that the five points on the stars represented the five states of matter, solid, liquid, gas, plasma, and crystal, while the number of stars represented the five main preconditions of life, light sound, taste, smell, and feeling.
Turkmenistan is getting downright scientific about things!
But, let’s talk about the carpet band for a second. Each symbol (a traditional carpet ‘gul’ as they’re called over there) stands for the five major tribes of Turkmenistan. From top to bottom on the flag, they are Teke, Yomut, Saryk, Chowdur and Ersari.
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That’s all I’ve got for this installment of Three Flags. If you like it, let me know in the comments and if you too, have someone who loves flags in your life, send them this post and tell ‘em to subscribe! I’m always looking for more readers.
This is legit a low-key extremely cool part of living where I live. Not just in America, where you can shout about the bullshit some other government is doing to your friends and family back home, but in a town with enough of an international community that people are likely to do that. We’ve had protests against the Sudanese government, against the Chinese Government, and obviously against the Israeli government lately.
Corporate American Media has other preoccupations currently, like trying to implode the Democratic Party so they can get a hot mess of a television ratings bonanza at the DNC in Chicago AND a second Trump presidency which will be very good for their bottom line.