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Tajikistan

Todzhikiston

by António Martins-Tuválkin (after scan of Ummed Jaihoni)
Proportions: 1:2
Flag adopted 1992-NOV-24, coat of arms adopted 1993-DEC-28

Presentation of Tajikistan
State flag and construction sheet
Explanation of the flag
Coat of Arms
Tajikistan 1991-1992
Islamic Movement in Tajikistan
Aircraft marking
Badakhshan

See also:

Presentation of Tajikistan

Full name: Republic of Tajikistan
Location: Central Asia
Status: Internationally recognized independent state since 9 September 1991, a member of the UN and the CIS.
Notes: Tajikistan, formerly the Tadzhik SSR, was one of the last states to break with the collapsing USSR and also one of the last to hoist a post-Communist flag. Russian (and Communist) influence remains strong, largely due to the fact that the government needs Russian support in the sporadically continuing civil war against Islamic fundamentalists, who are mainly based in the south of the country.
Stuart Notholt, 25 November 1995

State flag and construction sheet

by Željko Heimer

From Tajikistan embassy in US http://www.tjus.org/State1.htm:
The state flag of the Republic of Tajikistan represents a right-angled panel consisting from three colored stripes located horizontal: the top stripe - red color and equal to it on width the bottom stripe of green color, the average white stripe, making one and a half width of dense stripes. On a white stripe, at the distance of half of length of a panel from a flagstaff, there is a stylized gold crown and a semicircle from seven stars above it. The attitude of the general width of a flag to length is 1:2. The crown and a star are entered in a rectangle, the sides of which on a vertical make 0,8 and across 1,0 width of a white stripe. Five-pointed stars are entered in a circle with diameter 0,15 and settle down on an arch radius of 0,5 width of a white stripe. There are three colors on a flag of the Republic of Tajikistan: green, red and white. A green stripe are valleys, they are not enough in republic - 7 % of territory. Because the rest of the territory is occupied by mountains. The white stripe is a color of the main richness of republic - cotton and also the color of snow and ice in high mountains. The red color is a color of unification of republic and brotherhood with other nations of the world.
Gvido Petersons, 22 April 2004

This accords with an official "Description of the State Emblem and Flag of the Republic of Tajikistan" which accompanied the Law of 24 November 1992 with the exception of the width of the white stripe.
Christopher Southworth, 22 April 2004

The album gives the stripe widths as 257+386+257:(900+900), which matches fairly well with the 1.5 description since 257*1.5=385.5
Željko Heimer, 22 April 2004

by Željko Heimer and António Martins-Tuválkin

Image of the flag with the crown errouneously taken from the armes, (while officially it is different when represented in the flag)

António Martins-Tuválkin, 28 April 2005

Explanation of flag

The flag of the Tadzhik SSR was, unsurprisingly, red, with two horizontal stripes of white over green. The white symbolized cotton production, the basis of Tajikistani agriculture, and the green was for other agricultural produce. The Tajikistan flag continues this tradition, being a red over white over green tricolour. On the white stripe is a golden crown surmounted by seven stars. (I do not know the significance of this emblem).
Stuart Notholt 25 November 1995

The colours are the same as the Iranian flag (albeit in reverse order), and the Tajiks are the only one of the former Soviet Central Asian nationalities who speak a Persian-related language than a Turkic one. Could this choice of colours be deliberate - and if so was the Tajik SSR flag similarly inspired? (I'd love to know how they got it past the Communists!)
Roy Stilling, 26 November 1995

I have found images of two versions of Tajik flag, differing only in small detail at the top of the crown. I have few pictures showing the top as oval, and few having the wings downwards. I am not sure which is right.
Željko Heimer 07 February 1996

Quoted from the Encyclopenia Americana article on flags (written by W. Smith) "The republic's flag was adopted in 1992 and the red, white and green stripes recall the flag of Iran, a nation which Tajikistan has close ethnic ties. The stylized crown and seven stars at the flags center represent Tajikistan's sovereignty, friendship between all nationalities, and the union of workers, peasants and the intellectual classes."

The above doesn't explain why they chose seven stars. Crowns are used by several European countires to represent sovereignty (Poland, Austria, etc.). The red, white green was also used in their republic flag before the fall of the USSR.
Nathan Augustine

There are seven districts in the country. Each star stands for one.
Sergey Petrov, 31 January 2003

Znamierowski further mentions that in the traditional Tajik culture, the magic number seven is a symbol of perfection and the emblem of happiness as the source of virtue. According to a Tajik legend, the paradise is made of seven beautiful orchards separated from each other by seven mountains, each of the mountains being a surmonted by a bright star. Red is the symbol of sun and victory; white represents purity, cotton and snow on the mountains and green symbolizes the spiritual meaning of Islam and generosity of the nature.
Ivan Sache, 1 February 2003

The Iranian peoples include Persians (who dominate what was once known as Persia, or Pars/Fars, and now known as Iran), as well as peoples such as the Kurds, Baloch and Tajik. In terms of language, though, Tajik is a classical version of Persian and shares immense similarities with Dari and Persian. Hence, perhaps the color choice was a nod towards their common Iranian heritage.
I believe Kurds use similar colors, in a similar tri-color format. The use of red, green and white is furthermore very common throughout the Muslim world, with blue being the mark of many Turkic peoples (though the Tajiks are the only post-Soviet Mu