[inspic=59,left,,thumb]Yesterday Turkmenistan celebrated the Turkmen Flag Day introduced by Saparmurat Niyazov back in 1994. For the first time this year, the festivities were not accompanied by the celebration of Turkmenbashi’s birthday (February 19).

By tradition, the festivities started with a flower laying ceremony at Independence Monument in the southern part of the Turkmen capital, the Ashgabat correspondent of Turkmenistan.ru reports. The first wreath of flowers was laid on behalf of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

Yesterday, a festive concert was held at Ruhiet Palace in Ashgabat. Turkmenistan’s best professional and amateur artist groups, as well as pop stars performed at the concert. Today in the afternoon, a military parade, a horse riders’ show and theatrical festive show by masters of culture and arts, children’s and student ensembles, and singing-dancing groups of Turkmenistan took place at the Olympic stadium in Ashgabat. The traditional fireworks will wrap up the State Flag Day festivities.

This made me think of an article written by one of the best known Turkmen scientists, a demographer Shokhrat Kadyrov, who permanently resides in Norway (in exile). He is the author of a book entitled “Natsiya plemen” (“The nation of tribes”) and numerous articles about the Soviet and contemporary Turkmenistan. He also edits a website devoted to the Turkmen history, ethnography and current events that I strongly recommend to everyone who reads Russian.

One of Kadyrov’s main points is that since Turkmenistan gained independence in 1991, it has been ruled by people from the biggest Turkmen tribe called Teke, or to be more precise Ahalteke, that live around Ashgabat (both Niyazov and Berdymukhamedov belong to that tribe). Other tribes (there are several dozens of them) have no influence on the political developments.

What does the flag have to do with all this? Well, Kadyrov claims that the Turkmen flag, anthem and national emblem reflect the symbols of the Teke tribe rather than that of all Turkmen people. If this is true, it would be interesting to know whether the Turkmen from other tribes identify themselves with the state emblem?