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Contents 1 Comments 1.1 Comment 1.2 Barjak 1.3 "the" circle around the star 1.4 In Reality

[edit] Comments

[edit] Comment

The legend that gives the design of the Turkish flag as being due to the events during the fall of Constantinople were related to me by user:Adam_Carr who heard that story while visiting Turkey

ThaGrind 01:38, 25 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Hi. I have added an interlink to Turkish page. The page there is a stub but the flag there has correct ratio and has the white stripe which is in the definition of Turkish flag. The flag in English and other Wikipedias need to be fixed. ato 07:17, 18 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Barjak

A name for the Croatian flag is also "barjak". Anybody an idea if that's somehow similar to bajrak or am I just wrong... --Neoneo13 00:08, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Hi, "bayrak" is the general name for "flag" in Turkish, I guess this is the same in both languages. Atilim Gunes Baydin 20:24, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "the" circle around the star

Under "construction" there are a couple refferences to "the circle around the star". There is no circle around the star in the flag, so describing an imaginary circle placed around the star isn't very accurate. Would it be better to substitute "A" for "the"?

[edit] In Reality

The Flag of Byzantium

In 670 BC, the citizens of Byzantium claimed the crescent moon as their state symbol, after winning a battle, which they attributed to Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt, whose symbol was the crescent moon.[1] Other ancient cultures might have worshipped the sky, moon and stars but Byzantium was the first governing state to use it as their national symbol. In 330 AD Constantine I added the Virgin Mary's star to the flag. When the city fell to the Ottomans in 1453 they saw this flag with the Crescent all over Constantinople and took it as their own which the Turkish Flag and many other Muslim nations have inherited ever since.

The crescent moon and star were not completely abandoned by the Christian world after the fall of Constantinople. To date the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem official church flag is a lavarum of white with a church building with two towers and on either side of the arms, at the top, are the outline in black of a crescent moon facing center, and a star/stars with rays.[2]

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantium]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantium[/url]

So why call this a theory? This is evidence and fact, not a dream of Attaturk's like the other 'stories' LOL. Reaper7 00:15, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

What the?? Since when are the stars, the moon and other astronomical creations the property of one nation or empire??? Quote: "As far as I'm aware the crescent and star combination has a heritage directly linked to the Babylonian cult of Inana (who if I'm not mistaken was usually depicted as crowned with the crescent and star combination) - and with the numerous other equivalent female fertility cults of near eastern antiquity (e.g., the cult of Isis). Its subsequent adoption as an Islamic symbol is similar to the Christian appropriation of pagan symbolism elsewhere (e.g., the various European "Black Madonnas"), and is testament to the persistence of ancient systems of belief into late antiquity and early modern times." How about that for a theory?? So let's stop this effort to appropriate everything in Turkey to Greeks and Byzantines.. Now that you mentioned it, maybe I should go to the Byzantium article and mention this.. Baristarim 22:37, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

NO obviously you are confused severely, what I am saying, is that it is a little more than a coincidence to anyone with 20% of a brain the fact that the flag of byzantium at the time of its fall to the Turks was a moon and star, this should not be grouped in the theories section like Attaturk's dreams, LOL. But please - what I posted was obviously not for you, don't care if the Byzantiums got it off the Eygptians who got it off Martians - that is not the point, it was the flag of Byzantium and that is fact and that is where the Turks aquired it, and it is a little more than a 'theory' to a non Asiaitic Turk. Reaper7 22:55, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

No, not neccessarily.. It didnt originate from the Byzantines [1], so it is quite possible that Turks got it from the other peoples of the Middle East and Persia before - please see this [2].. It explicitly states that this symbol has been assumed as being transferred via battles, but the true origin is the cultural movements of the Middle East.. Seljuq Turks and other Muslim Turkic tribes used this symbol on various occasions before the fall of Constantinople.. OTOH, I agree that there are certain legends mentioned in that page, and they should be clearly labelled as such.. Baristarim 23:09, 9 October 2006 (UTC)