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Turkey: Law on the flag
Last modified: 2003-12-05 by ivan sache
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Laws on the flag
The fundamentals of the Turkish Flag were laid down by the Turkish
Flag Law No. 2994 of May 29, 1936 (now abrogated).
The Turkish Flag Regulation No. 2/7175 dated July 28, 1937, and
Supplementary Regulation No. 11604/2 dated July 29, 1939, were
enacted to describe how the flag law would be implemented.
The Turkish Flag Law No. 2893 dated September
22, 1983, and published in the Official Gazette on September 24,
1983, was promulgated six months after its publication. According to
Article 9 of Law No. 2893, a statute including the
fundamentals of the implementation of that law was also published.
Dov Gutterman, 4 September 1999
Current law on the flag
Law #2893, adopted September 22, 1983, published in the Official
Gazette September 24, 1983 No 18171, Series 5 Volume 22, p. 599
Purpose
- Article 1 - The purpose of this Law is to identify the
principles and procedures about shape, construction and protection
of the Turkish flag.
Shape and Construction of the Flag
- Article 2 - The Turkish flag shall be a red flag with a
white moon - star which is in the shape and proportions shown in
the attached table. The standards, the
fabric and material of the making of the flag and special flags
(symbolic flags, special signs, pennant, ship's pennant and
official flag) are shown in the charter.
Hoisting and Lowering the Flag
- Article 3 - Flag shall be hoisted on public
associations and foundations and their abroad representatives, sea
vehicles of public foundations, real and judicial persons. It
shall be hoisted on vehicles of the authorities in and out of the
country.
Hoisting and lowering of the flag shall be done with ceremony.
Making of the ceremony in appropriate way shall be under the
responsability of the authorized chief in that place.
The Turkish flag shall be hoisted on national holidays and general
holidays, starting from holiday start and ending in the sunset of
the end of the holiday. (Note: A recent modification of the
law changed this rule. The flag shall now be hoisted on the
official buildings all the time.)
Permanent hoisting of the flag, the closed places in which the
flag shall be placed, the places where the flag shall be used as
background, the way of hoisting the flagin private places, the
schedules and subjects about hoisting of the flag on the vessels
of the Turkish Armed Forces and Turkish merchant ships are shown
in the charter
Flying the flag at half staff
- Article 4 - The Turkish flag shall be flown at half
staff as a sign of mourning on November10. (Note: November
10 is the anniversary of the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
in 1938, the founder of the modern Turkish Republic).
The other instances and time of flying the flag at half staff
shall be announced by the Prime Minister.
Saluting the flag
- Article 5 - The flag shall be saluted when hanging and
lowering or during transfer of power ceremony.
Places that can be covered with flag
- Article 6 - The coffins of former
Presidents, martyrs and other civilians
or soldiers who are identified in the charter; the statues of
Atatürk in opening ceremonies and the desks in official oath
ceremonies can be covered with the Turkish flag.
In addition, the ways and places of usage of the flag according to
national customs and traditions are shown in the charter.
Prohibitions
- Article 7 - The Turkish flag shall not be used as torn,
unraveled, patched, with holes in it, dirty, faded, wrinkled or in
a situation that will bruise its spiritual value.
Except for official oath ceremonies it shall not be used on desks
and podiums as a cover for any purpose. It shall not be put on
places where people sit or stand. The shape of the flag shall not
be made to these places and similar things.
It shall not be worn as a dress or uniform.
Any political party, organization, society, club, association or
foundation other than the public associations and those
foundations that are determined in the charter shall not use the
flag on their emblems, pennants, symbols or similar things that
will form base or background on either side.
The Turkish Flag shall not be insulted or shown disrespect by
speech, writing, action or any other means.
The flag shall not be torn, burned, thrown or used without
care.
Any action that is against this law and the charter shall be
prevented and relevant investigation shall be performed.
Sanctions
- Article 8 - Making, selling and
using flags that is against this law and the charter is forbidden.
The flags that are done against this prohibition shall be
collected by the local authority.
People who behave against the rules of this law shall be penalized
according to Article 526 of Turkish Penal Code if their crime does
not require a heavier punishment.
Charter
- Article 9 - The matters that are said to be prescribed
in the charter and other principles concerning the application of
the present law shall be shown in the charter that will be
prepared within six months after publication of the present law.
Abrogated Law
- Article 10 - The Law on Turkish Flag dated May 29,1936
(#2994) shall be abrogated.
Validity
- Article 11 - This article shall become valid after six
months of its publication.
Enforcement
- Article 12 - The articles of the present law shall be
enforced by the Council of Ministers.
Source:
Turkish
Government website, law texts (in Turkish)
Collected and translated by Onur Özgün, 1
September 2001
Cases of infringement of the law on the flag
The Swedish newspaper Metro reported that eight shop owners
in Turkey were sentenced to pay fines of 250 Millions Turkish Lira
each, because they had sold t-shirts which had the Turkish flag upon
them. The newspaper source were the Turkish news agencies TT and DPA.
Elias Granqvist, 14 November 2001
There weres also some news about this subject about two weeks ago
in Turkish newspapers. According to Sabah, published on
October 31, the attorney general of Selçuk, a district of
province Izmir, initiated an investigation since children wore
clothes with Turkish flag figure on the clothes on the National Day,
October 29.After that, I heard that some sellers stopped selling
these t-shirts.
Onur Özgün, 15 November 2001