Flags of Turkey

Republic of Turkey

Who & why: Mustafa Kemal (later given the surname Atatürk, "Father of the Turks") leads the nationalist movement to victory, and the Grand National Assembly proclaims the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923, with Ankara as its capital. His government pushes through sweeping reforms within a generation: the caliphate is abolished in 1924, a new Latin alphabet replaces Arabic script in 1928, the state is formally declared secular in 1937, and women win full suffrage in 1934.

What it represents: the flag is not a new design — it is the same red field with white crescent and star flown by the late Ottoman Empire, its exact proportions and shade eventually fixed by the Turkish Flag Law of 1936, honestly continuous rather than a break marking the republic's founding.

Allied occupation and the War of Independence

Who & why: the Ottoman Empire surrenders in October 1918; Allied forces occupy Constantinople and the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres threatens to partition Anatolia itself among Greece, Armenia, and Allied spheres of influence. Mustafa Kemal organizes a nationalist resistance from Ankara, and the resulting War of Independence (1919–1922) defeats the Greek invasion and forces a full renegotiation, ending in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which finally secures Turkey's modern borders; the sultanate itself is abolished on 1 November 1922.

What it represents: both the crumbling Ottoman government in occupied Constantinople and Mustafa Kemal's rival nationalist government in Ankara continue flying the same red crescent-and-star flag throughout this turbulent period — no new design marks the nationalist movement, underscoring that the coming republic is a change of government, not of national symbol.

Ottoman Empire (decline)

Who & why: from the late 18th century, military defeats, nationalist uprisings among subject peoples in the Balkans, and mounting European economic and political pressure earn the empire its label as "the sick man of Europe," even as Tanzimat-era reformers from 1839 attempt sweeping modernization. Ottoman defeat alongside the Central Powers in World War I brings occupation of Constantinople and, ultimately, the sultanate's abolition in November 1922.

What it represents: the red flag with white crescent and star, already common in naval use for generations, is fixed by an 1844 firman under Sultan Abdulmecid I as the empire's official state and civil flag, its proportions and details the direct ancestor of the modern Turkish flag.

Ottoman Empire (rise and height)

Who & why: Sultan Mehmed II captures Constantinople on 29 May 1453 after a 53-day siege, ending the Byzantine Empire and making the city the Ottoman capital. The empire expands rapidly, reaching its territorial and cultural height under Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520–1566), whose armies besiege Vienna in 1529 and whose reign spans three continents from Hungary to the Persian Gulf to North Africa, alongside a golden age of law, architecture, and the arts.

What it represents: a plain red field bearing a white crescent moon, without the star that later becomes standard, is the most widely attested Ottoman state and naval flag through this long era; a star is added to some Ottoman flags only from the 1790s onward under Sultan Selim III's naval reforms.

Byzantine Empire (Constantinople)

Who & why: Roman emperor Constantine I dedicates his new capital, Constantinople, on the site of the old Greek colony of Byzantium in 330 CE; as the western Roman Empire fragments over the following century, this eastern, Greek-speaking half endures as its direct continuation for over a thousand years, a major center of Christian theology, Roman law, and Greek scholarship. Centuries of wars with Sasanian Persia, the Arab caliphates, and, from 1204, a devastating sack by Fourth Crusade Latin knights, steadily erode its territory until Sultan Mehmed II's Ottoman army finally takes the city on 29 May 1453.

What it represents: no single flag serves the whole millennium-long empire; imperial purple and the labarum (Constantine's Christian military standard) mark its earliest centuries, while the banner shown here — a gold cross with four gold firesteels (or letter-B shapes, read as "King of Kings, Ruling over Kings") on red — is the best-documented Byzantine state banner, associated with the Palaiologos dynasty that rules from 1261 until the city's fall.

Ancient Anatolia: Çatalhöyük to Roman rule

Who & why: Çatalhöyük, a densely packed Neolithic settlement in central Anatolia occupied from roughly 7500 BCE, is among the oldest known large human settlements anywhere in the world. Millennia later, the Hittite Empire (c. 1650–1180 BCE) rules much of Anatolia from its capital Hattusa, rivaling Egypt for control of the Levant until its Bronze Age collapse; Phrygian and Lydian kingdoms follow, then Persian Achaemenid rule from 546 BCE, Alexander's conquest in 334 BCE, a patchwork of Hellenistic successor kingdoms, and finally full Roman annexation. Constantine's 330 CE dedication of Constantinople, on the site of the older Greek colony of Byzantium, closes this era and opens the next.

What it represents: no flag in any modern sense existed across this span; Hittite kings used royal seals and hieroglyphic-and-cuneiform inscriptions, and Greek and Roman forces carried standards, but nothing resembling a woven national banner survives or was likely ever made. Shown here honestly blank rather than invented.

World context: Çatalhöyük's Neolithic occupation runs alongside the similarly ancient settlement at Jericho; the Hittite-Egyptian Battle of Kadesh (1274 BCE) and its 1259 BCE peace treaty predate almost every other written peace agreement in the historical record; and Alexander's 334 BCE crossing into Anatolia, which opens the Hellenistic age, follows barely a decade after Aristotle finished tutoring him at the Macedonian court.