Flag of Irad

The flag of Irad (Iradi: Irad tuu) is a crimson field bearing a central emblem: a white stallion in gait beneath a five-pointed star, an inverted horseshoe on the hoist side of the horse, an arched inscription in Old Turkic (Orkhon) script reading "Be Free", and a wreath of two ears of wheat. It was adopted by the Provisional Government in 1992 and confirmed by the interim Territorial Legislature of Irad in 1993. It has been used since then by every Iradi administration, including the territorial government, the Democratic Republic of Irad and the Irad Special Economic Zone (ISEZ), and it is also flown in the Autonomous Tribal Regions (ATR). Its official description was issued by the Department of Public Information in 2015.^[1][2]

Design

The flag has a width-to-length ratio of 1:√2 (about 1:1.41). The emblem stands at the center of the field, slightly toward the hoist, and fills about three-quarters of the flag's height. Its elements form a roundel: the wheat ears enclose it at the sides and foot, and the inscription closes it at the top.^[1]

Colors

The official description gives the field as crimson, the stallion, star, horseshoe and inscription as white, and the wheat as golden. In the reference artwork published with it, all the charges are drawn in a single pale ivory (hex #FFF6D5) on a crimson field (hex #AA0000), and flags made in Irad generally follow this. Some foreign and commercially made flags show the wheat in yellow or gold.^[1]

Inscription

The inscription is written in the runic script of the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Orkhon valley, examples of which have been found in the Talas valley. Like the original inscriptions, it reads from right to left. It renders the Iradi words azat bol, "be free". The script is used today only symbolically, and the choice was explained in 1992 as a reference to the oldest written form of the Turkic languages, which predates the division of Iradis into Christian and Muslim communities (see Iradi alphabet).^[2][3]

Symbolism

The 2015 official description assigns each element a meaning:^[1]

• The crimson field continues the revolutionary tradition of the Semirechye Revolt of 1916 and the banner of the Iradi Soviet Socialist Republic.
• The stallion represents the national equestrian heritage, the Chongtor and Akyel breeds, and the historical belief that Irad was the birthplace of the domesticated horse (see Botai Culture in Irad). Some popular interpretations also associate the white horse with The Legend of the White Rider, although the official description does not.
• The star represents Polaris, called Irad in traditional cosmology, from which the country takes its name. The flag uses the five-pointed civic form of the Star of Irad; the eight-pointed form is reserved for the liturgical use of the Syro-Iradi Catholic Church. Some older publications and foreign descriptions give the flag star eight points, confusing the two.
• The inverted horseshoe follows the steppe cavalry custom of the Fallen Rider, in which downward-facing tack marks a warrior killed in battle (see Fallen Rider Tradition). On the flag it is a permanent memorial to the martyrs of Irad, specifically those lost in the 1916 revolt and the flight that followed, the victims of the Soviet purges, and the dead of the First and Second Iradi Civil Wars. In European folk custom a horseshoe hung points-up holds good luck; the downward shoe on the Iradi flag instead marks the dead.
• The inscription "Be Free" expresses the aspiration to freedom.
• The wheat wreath retains a motif of Soviet-era republican heraldry and symbolizes agricultural life in the river valleys.

History

Before 1992

The clans used horsetail standards (tug) in war and at gatherings, and the church carried processional banners bearing the cross and the eight-pointed star. Iradi tradition holds that the insurgents of 1916 carried red banners, which the official description cites as the origin of the crimson field.^[2]

Like other union republics, the Iradi SSR, created in 1925, used a red flag bearing the hammer and sickle and the initials of the republic, later replaced by the standard pattern of a red field with the gold hammer, sickle and star in the canton. Its state emblem was framed by a wreath of wheat ears. The Socialist Republic of Irad proclaimed in Kobozev in October 1991 continued to use the Soviet-era flag.^[2]

Adoption (1992–1993)

During the Winter Uprising of 1992, protesters in Talas carried red banners painted with a white horse, and after the shootings of 3 February 1992 an inverted horseshoe, worn as a badge, spread among them as a sign of mourning in keeping with the Fallen Rider custom. According to popular accounts, a red banner with a white horse and a star hung in the municipal theater during the Talas Town Hall Meeting on 11 March 1992, at which the Republic of Irad was proclaimed.^[2][4]

The Provisional Government appointed a commission of historians and artists from the Talas art college to prepare a formal design, and it adopted the present flag by decree in May 1992, during the siege of Talas. In its 1992 form the horseshoe was described as commemorating the dead of 1916, the purges and the February 1992 shootings. After the Alimbekov-Baker Treaty and the establishment of US territorial administration, the interim Territorial Legislature confirmed the flag in the State Symbols Act of 1993, together with the anthem, "The Spirit of Irad".^[3][4]

Territorial period and after

Under the territorial administration (see Territory of Irad (1992–2006)) the flag was flown beside the flag of the United States on public buildings, with the US flag in the position of precedence, as in other US territories. It remained the flag of the Democratic Republic of Irad in December 2006 and of the ISEZ from February 2007.^[3]

The Iradi Freedom Society did not adopt a separate flag. In the tribal regions the national flag is flown at clan assemblies and at the August kurultai on the Aksay Plateau, often beside clan horsetail standards, and it is one of the few symbols used by both administrations.^[5]

The Department of Public Information published the official description in 2015. It standardized the colors and construction, confirmed that the star has five points, and listed the dead of both civil wars among the martyrs commemorated by the horseshoe.^[1]

Usage

The flag is flown on government buildings and schools in the ISEZ, and is raised ceremonially in Talas on Irad Day, 11 March (see March 11 Independence Day and Public holidays in Irad). It is flown at half-mast on the anniversary of the 3 February 1992 shootings and on 15 August, the memorial day of The Lost Tribes of 1916.^[1] Its elements appear widely outside official use. Approved Chongtor stallions are branded with an inverted-horseshoe mark, silversmiths have added Orkhon letters to saddle fittings since the 1990s, and the star and horse are common in commercial logos (see Eerchilik (Saddlery)).^[5]

Vexillologists have compared the flag with that of Kyrgyzstan, which also places a single central emblem on a red field. The Iradi flag differs in its figurative emblem and inscription, which are closer to the Soviet tradition of republican state emblems than to the plain geometric designs adopted by most post-Soviet states.^[6]

References

1. ^ Department of Public Information (2015). The National Flag of Irad: Official Description and Symbolism. Talas.
2. ^ National Historical Museum of Irad (2017). Banners and Emblems of Irad: From the Tug to the National Flag. Talas.
3. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 108: Revolution of 1992 and Minutes of the Provisional Government.
4. ^ Department of History, Talas State University (2017). The War of 1992: A Documentary History. Talas State University Press.
5. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
6. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2019). 'Horses, Stars and Sickles: Post-Soviet Heraldry in Central Asia.' Vol. 26, Iss. 3, pp. 201–219.