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"Teptar"
May, 2007
Flags, together with the rest, were used by the Nakhs from time immemorial. Back at the time of the Nakh-Neanderthal wars (about 10 or, perhaps, 20 thousand years ago) individual Nakhs used to demonstrate their moral superiority over their enemies in the information wars by using anthems, flags, emblems, legends and other regalia in order to intimidate the enemy. Later when first trade unions were created they formed their own tukhums but this is another story which one can guess at by going through this gallery and its abundant symbols. Modern science confirms the fact that the Romans were the first to copy the flags from the Nakh. They used to call the process vexillum and parade the flags in front of their legions. Flag bearers wearing helmets with the picture of a wolf head came into fashion after the Romans’ encounter with the Nakh.
Having brought to your attention the copybook maxims of history, I would like to consider directly the contemporary Nakh experiments in vexillology.
0. The banner of the first Imams. I cannot vouchsafe for its authenticity because of the poor quality of the picture.
1. The North Caucasus Emirate Flag.
This is perhaps the most positive flag of all. The leading world institutes of smilology (the study of smiles) agree that this is the first dedicated use of smiles in history. And this is all thanks to the Nakhs, as always.
The flag was a green cloth with a white crescent and three stars above it. The flag on the 100 Rouble note contains four-point stars, while the flag on the 5 Rouble note contains five-point stars, whereas the stars on the flags depicted on the notes of other denominations are impossible to discern as to the number of points. However, stars in emblems always have five points so it would be reasonable to suppose that the same number of points are depicted on the flag. The ratio of the flag’s length to is width in the pictures is close to 2:1.
2. The Flags of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic
The national flag of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic is the national flag of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and consists of a red cloth carrying an inscription in gold letters in the left hand corner, close to the flagpole at the top: “RSFSR” in Russian, Chechen and Ingush, and in smaller letters underneath “The Chechen Ingush ASSR” in Russian, Chechen and Ingush.
3. The Flag of the Chechen-Ingush Republic
In November 1990 Checheno-Ingushetiya declared its independence from the USSR assuming the name of the Chechen-Ingush Republic. On 8 June 1991 the annual Congress of the Chechen people declared a separate Chechen Republic. On 23 November 1990 the General Congress of the Chechen people approved the national flag of Chechnya. The flag is a green cloth with narrow red, white and red stripes in its bottom half. The flag was used unofficially in 1990-1991.
I must also stress that the author remembers this picture by the fact that it used to be displayed above the local administrative buildings such as local schools or village soviets in the first years of the Chechen-Russian war. It had to be taken down after which military regiments used to look for this picture, when carrying out the ‘mop-up operations’. After several repetitions of this action, the heads of local administrations would take the flag down and take it home with them overnight and then put it up again in the morning.
4. The OKChN flag
On the first day of the Nationwide Congress of the Chechen people in Grozny in November 1990 the flag hanging in the congress hall consisted of a green cloth with narrow red, white, red and green horizontal stripes in the bottom half and a circle of nine golden five-point stars in the top half. According to the author of this report the flag was designed by V.Votsaev.
However, like all other beautiful things created by the Nakhs, the stars idea was later borrowed from us to appear on the EU flag!
5. The Chechen Republic of Ichkeriya flag
In the autumn of 1991 the Chechen National Guard took power in Grozny, dissolving the Supreme Soviet of Checheno-Ingushetiya. General Dzhokhar Dudaev became president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeriya. On 6 September 1991 Chechnya declared its independence. Ingushetiya did not form part of Ichkeriya and was temporarily outside any state entity until the summer of 1992. Only in June 1992 the Russian Parliament announced the creation of the Ingush Republic. On 2 November 1991 the Republic’s Parliament approved the new version of the national flag: a green cloth 105 cm x 165 cm with white, red and white horizontal stripes 10cm wide each and 10 cm above the bottom edge of the flag.
The flag was often used together with the national emblem in the centre. It is exactly such a flag that used to hang on the wall of the Republic’s president Dzhokhar Dudaev’s office. Perhaps, it was the president’s personal standard.
The friendly state of Cabo Verde is still grateful to the Nakhs, all we need is to find it!
Today you can frequently come across the Ichkeriya flag with shakhada and a sabre instead of the emblem. However, the shaitan-tube or crow-bar-30 would look much better there.
6. The Flag of the Republic of Ingushetiya
Ingushetiya’s national flag adopted on 15 July 1994 consists of the following: a rectangular white cloth, with a solar sign in the centre in the form of a red circle with three arched rays emanating from it. The ratio of width to length is 1:2. There are two green stripes along the bottom and top edges of the flag, with the width of one sixth of the total width of the flag. The radius of the inner circle of the solar sign is one sixth of the total width of the flag. Every one of the three rays of the sign is a semi-circle with the inner radius equal to one eighteenth of the flag’s width. The width of the stripe forming the perimeter of the solar sign and its rays is one thirty sixth of the flag’s width. The rays are equally distributed along the whole perimeter of the solar sign in the anticlockwise direction.
And some humour to follow:
7. The ‘opposition’ flag
The Provisional Council of Umar Avturkhanov, loyal to the federal authorities, have used a different flag, based on the OKChN flag of 1990-1991. The flag had a white crescent and a star in the top left hand corner next to the flagpole. The same flag was used by the National Trust Government of Khadzhiev, during the elections of the head of Chehchnya (D.Zavgaev) in December 1995 and during the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation. Mediator missions with an anti-Dudaev agenda for example, that of Ruslan Khasbulatov, also used that flag.
How the Turkic crescent had found its way to the allegedly ‘Nakh’ flag is an interesting question. Perhaps, the flag’s authors smoked the same weed as the authors of the emblem containing oil derricks.
8. Flags of the 95th region of the Russian Federation
Decree ¹11 of 29 June 2000 by the president A.Kadyrov’s administration introduced a flag which used the pattern of the national Chechen Republic flag adopted by the Supreme Soviet in 1996 - to be used until the adoption of a new Constitution. It was a green cloth with a horizontal white stripe bordered by two similar red stripes in the bottom part of the flag.
At the end of 2000 there was the following version of the Chechnya flag flying above the roof of the Federation Council in Moscow together with the flags of other republics: a white stripe with two red borders was situated in the centre of a green cloth occupying (together with the borders) about 1/3 of the cloth’s width. We still do not know the real status of the flag.
A multicoloured picture of the Chechen Republic’s national flag is inserted in the Appendix to the present Provision. The Chechen Republic’s national flag is a rectangular cloth consisting of three horizontal stripes: the top green stripe – 65 cm, the middle white stripe – 10 cm and the bottom red stripe – 35 cm. There is a vertical white stripe next to the flagpole, containing the Chechen national design – 15 cm, with a golden fringe along its perimeter. The flag’s width in proportion to its length is 2:3.
The studio which designed this flag must be the same one that had a hand in designing the Republic of Belarus’ national flag.
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