Flag of Turkey
Turkey’s flag is red with a white crescent and a white five-pointed star, which the Turkish Flag Law calls the white crescent-and-star red flag (“ay yıldızlı al bayrak”). The law gives the crescent, star and red no meaning; the popular story that they are the moon and a star reflected on a field covered with fallen soldiers’ blood is a legend, which the Kure encyclopedia says has no standing as a historical record.
Easily confused with
- Flag of TunisiaTunisia’s crescent and star are red, in a white disc in the centre; Turkey’s are white, on the red, towards the pole.
- Flag of AzerbaijanAzerbaijan’s flag has three horizontal stripes of equal width, blue, red and green from the top, with a white crescent and a white eight-pointed star in the middle of the red. The President’s office gives the meanings: blue for the Turkic origin of the Azerbaijani people, red for the wish to build a modern society and develop democracy, and green for belonging to Islamic civilisation.
- Flag of PakistanPakistan’s flag is dark green with a white vertical band at the pole and a white crescent and five-pointed star on the green. Pakistan’s Consulate General in Jeddah gives the meanings: green for Islam and the Muslim majority, white for the religious minorities, the crescent for progress and the star for enlightenment.
How to read it
The Turkish Flag Law, Law No. 2893 of 22 September 1983, defines the flag as the red flag with a white crescent and star, in the shapes and proportions shown in the table annexed to the law. It replaced the Turkish Flag Law No. 2994 of 29 May 1936. The table measures everything from the flag’s height, G: the flag is 1½ G long (2:3), and the crescent and star sit towards the pole. The law also has the flag lowered to half-mast every 10 November as a sign of mourning.
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How the crescent and star are drawn
The law’s table gives every measurement as a fraction of the flag’s height, G, and says the ratios hold whatever the size of the flag. The crescent is the space between two overlapping circles, its open side facing away from the pole, and the star sits inside a circle of its own beyond the crescent’s opening.
| Measurement in the law’s table | Fraction of the height (G) |
|---|---|
| Centre of the outer circle, from the sleeve at the pole | 1/2 |
| Diameter of the crescent’s outer circle | 1/2 |
| Distance between the centres of the outer and inner circles | 0.0625 |
| Diameter of the crescent’s inner circle | 0.4 |
| Gap between the inner circle and the star’s circle | 1/3 |
| Diameter of the circle the star is drawn in | 1/4 |
| Length of the flag | 1½ |
| Width of the sleeve (uçkurluk) | 1/30 |
Telling it from the flag of Tunisia
Tunisia’s flag is also red with a crescent and a five-pointed star, but they are red, inside a white circle in the centre of the flag, as Tunisia’s constitution describes it. On Turkey’s flag the crescent and star are white, directly on the red, and set towards the pole.
The flag before the Republic
Red became the official colour of Ottoman flags over time, Kure writes, and the crescent grew more prominent on them; the star came later. Under Selim III, at the end of the 18th century, the red flag with a white crescent and star was accepted as the state’s official flag. The number of the star’s points varied in Ottoman times before the five-pointed star became fixed, and the Republic of Türkiye took over the Ottoman red flag with crescent and star. The crescent and star has a longer history of its own, on and off flags.
Where this symbol came from
oldsymbols.comStar and crescentThe crescent and star on the flag; its history on Ottoman flags and beyond is on oldsymbols.com. oldsymbols.comOttoman flagThe national flag of the Ottoman Empire in its last century: a red flag with a white crescent and a white star. Red flags with the crescent and an eight-pointed star date from Sultan Selim III at the end of the 18th century; the star became five-pointed under Abdülmecid I, and the Republic of Türkiye kept the flag.Read next
- Next in Asian flagsFlag of BahrainBahrain’s flag is red with a white band at the pole, the two divided by a serrated line of five white triangles. Bahrain’s flag law of 2002 says the five points stand for the five pillars of Islam.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of AlgeriaAlgeria’s flag is green by the pole and white, with a red crescent and a red five-pointed star in the centre. Algeria’s Foreign Ministry explains the green as hope for progress and a better tomorrow, the white as peace, love and goodness, the red as the importance of work in achieving prosperity, and the crescent and star as a sign that Islam is the main religion in Algeria.
More asian flags
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with curves and waves, squares and rectangles or stars.
Sources
- Türk Bayrağı Kanunu (Kanun No. 2893, 1983), Turkish Flag Law No. 2893 of 22 September 1983, as published with its annexed table, Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (TBMM), Art. 2, 4, 10; annexed table
- Türk Bayrağı, Kure Ansiklopedi entry “Türk Bayrağı”, Kure Ansiklopedi, Sections on measurements, Ottoman history, origins and legends
- Türk Bayrağı Kanunu (Kanun No. 2893, current text), Turkish Flag Law No. 2893, consolidated text, Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye, Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi, Art. 2 and 4
- Constitution of the Republic of Tunisia, 2022, Constitution of Tunisia of 2022, Article 8 (English translation), Constitute Project, Article Eight
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 13, 2026. How we research
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