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Turkey: The Sixteen Great Turkish Empires

Part 2

Important note
The Göktürk Empire (Göktürk İmparatorluğu)
The Avar Empire (Avar İmparatorluğu)
The Hazar Empire (Hazar İmparatorluğu)
The Uygur State (Uygur Devleti)

See also:

Important note

The 16 Great Turkish Empires are listed on several Turkish sources, such as the websites of the Research Centre for Turkestan and Azerbaijan and the Australian-Turkish Media Group. All sources give an identical presentation of the Empires, which probably comes from some official document. In the following paragraphs, this description is given as the "official description".

To the best of our knowledge, the historical existence of most of these flags is not proven and we are not aware of their origin and designer. They are therefore considered as "attributed flags".

Ivan Sache, 27 November 2003

The Göktürk Empire (Göktürk İmparatorluğu)

by Ivan Sache

"Official description":

Founded by Bumin Khan (Tumen) in the inaccessible valleys of the Altai Mountains (Ergenekon)(total area 18,000,000 sq. km).

The Blue Turks overthrew the Juan-Juan masters ofMongolia in the VIth century AD and established a vast Empire spreading across both eastern and western steppelands to the Volga and beyond. Almost immediately this state split into western and eastern Khanates. They were finally defeated by the Uighurs in 745.
This is the first documented Turk state. The Buddhist monk Xuan Zang met its ruler galopping in the steppes in the vicinity of Tashkent in 685.

The flag attributed to the Göktürk Empire is blue with a green wolf's head.

Ivan Sache & Jarig Bakker, 4 July 2004

The Avar Empire (Avar İmparatorluğu)

by Ivan Sache

"Official description":

Founded by Bayar Khan, covering the area between the Volga River, Hungary and Bessarabiya.

Avars were a Nomadic Turkish or Mongol people which, in the late VIth century AD invaded the plain of Hungary and set up a powerful kingdom, even besieging Constantinople. They declined in the VIIIth century, until defeated by Charlemagne at the end of the VIIIth century.

The flag attributed to the Avar Empire is green with a black rider shooting backwards with a bow.

Ivan Sache & Jarig Bakker, 4 July 2004

The Hazar Empire (Hazar İmparatorluğu)

by Ivan Sache

"Official description":

Founded by the Hazar tribe of Göktürks who migrated to the West and settled in the area stretching from the Caucasian Mountains to the Danube River and to the middle of Russia. Its greatest ruler was Hakan Yusuf.

The Khazars were a nomadic people who set up an extensive state in the steppelands east and west of the lower Volga in the VIth century AD. They were converted to Judaism around 800 (i.e., they chose this religion in preference to Islam and Christianity). In the later Xth century the rulers of Kiev broke their power.

The flag attributed to the Hazar Empire is blue with an unidentified white device in canton and five white stars arranged in a > pattern.

Ivan Sache & Jarig Bakker, 4 July 2004

The Uygur State (Uygur Devleti)

by Ivan Sache

"Official description":

Founded by Kutlug Bilgekul Khan, covering Central Asia and northern Mongolia.

This state was related to the Uyghurs/Uighurs, the Turkic people over near where the Turks originated, in the VIIIth-IXth century in Sinkiang, Western China.

The flag attributed to the Uygur state is yellow-orange with two yellow masks (?).

Ivan Sache & Jarig Bakker, 4 July 2004

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