Flag of Kazakhstan

How to read it

The flag of independent Kazakhstan was adopted in 1992 and designed by the artist Shaken Niyazbekov, the President’s website records; Store norske leksikon gives the date as 4 June 1992. Kazakhstan’s state symbols are governed by the Constitutional Law “On State Symbols” of 4 June 2007, and 4 June is the Day of State Symbols. The President’s website describes the flag as a rectangle of blue with the sun and its rays in the centre and a soaring steppe eagle beneath, a vertical band of national ornament along the staff, the sun, rays, eagle and ornament all in gold, with a width to length of 1:2.

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The sun’s rays, the eagle and the ornament

The sun has 32 golden rays, Store norske leksikon notes. The President’s website says the rays have the shape of grain, a sign of wealth and welfare. It calls the eagle one of the main heraldic figures on the arms and flags of many peoples, and says that for the nomads of Eurasia it meant freedom, fidelity, dignity, courage, strength and purity of thought. The band along the pole is a Kazakh ornament, which the encyclopedia names as “koshkar-muiz”, the ram’s horn; the President’s website says it stands for the art and cultural traditions of the people of Kazakhstan.

Two readings of the blue

The President’s website ties the blue to Turkic culture: the ancient Turks worshipped the sky as their god, and their sky-blue banner stood for devotion to the father of their ancestors. The encyclopedia Store norske leksikon gives a different reading: peace, freedom, and the union of mainly Turkic-speaking peoples with peoples who speak Indo-European languages.

Telling it from Kyrgyzstan’s flag

Kyrgyzstan’s flag also has a golden sun in the centre, but on a red field, with forty rays and the red crown of a yurt inside the disc, as its law describes it. Kazakhstan’s field is sky blue, its sun has 32 rays, and it adds the eagle and the band of ornament by the pole.