With the Turkish constitution being re-written, with the unstated aim of making the current Prime Minister into a kind of Aztec God-King with laser beams for eyes, maybe we should think about some of the things that won’t change.
According to the current constitution, some aspects of Turkish nationhood are unalterable. The flag, for example.
It is a pretty cool one, and looks completely awesome when spread on the bonnet of a shitty car which is full of Turkish blokes who are out driving and honking their horns. Not a euphemism.
Fiona, who many of you enjoy seeing frolicking in some of our more visual posts, thinks it is cheeky and bold. If it were a person, she would be a fiery red head with a twinkle in her eye. Sigh. I have been single for too long.
The history of the flag is quite mysterious and gets tweaked by whoever is in charge. The rumour favoured by some Kemalists is that after a battle Ataturk saw the sun and the moon reflected in a puddle of blood. Ghoulish.
It definitely predates the Republic, as you can see it in any Ottoman military banner. It was snapping proudly over the fleets of ships and the massed armies of the Ottoman Empire for centuries.
Going back further, there is another legend which states the moon was in crescent form when the walls of Constantinople were breached in 1453. It was henceforth adopted as a symbol of Ottoman dominance. But the truth is that it comes from even before that night.
Fans of English football will be aware of a little south coast team called Portsmouth FC. Even though their crest is blue and gold, the star and crescent are loud and proud. This crest was awarded to the city by Richard I, the Lionheart. He had captured it in Cyprus from a Byzantine governor. Let’s not ask what he was doing capturing Byzantine islands when he should have been besieging Jerusalem. By all accounts he was a greedy idiot.
So the flag we see today is probably as Byzantine as religious controversies, gold things and beards. Once again, you can’t keep a good Byzantine legacy down.
But I might be wrong.
In other news, I now own a beer fridge.
But that’s another story.
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