Türkiye, Türks, and the Flag

As a political science student, I am particularly interested in peoples’ political self-identity.  One thing that I usually am struck by as an American is how we put the American flag on anything that stands still.  I think a lot of it stems from our self-identity as a nation in the aftermath of World War II.  But this has really been highlighted when I’ve been abroad by other countries’ reticence to plaster their national flag everywhere.  A great example is Germany which until the 2006 World Cup was almost ashamed to display the flag in public; and Spaniards still don’t display their flag as prominently as a consequence of the dictatorship. 

So I was really surprised when I came to Turkey to see the Turkish flag everywhere!  Turks are very proud of the Turkish state and its relatively recent founding.  Kamal Ataturk is everywhere in public life (blog post on that is in the works) and the flag is further expression of this pride.

But this flag pride has been heightened in the last week by two incidents.  A week ago, 8 soldiers were killed by the PKK – a terrorist Kurdish separatist group operating in the extreme south east of Turkey and the north west of Iraq.  And then on Friday, a Turkish Fighter jet was shot down with 2 pilots by Syria.  These two incidents have caused even more flags to appear, and it will be interesting to see how long this lasts. 

But this is one of those little things that you notice but can’t put a finger on and then, suddenly, you see it.  And Turks’ pride over their flag and their country is a very noticeable part of their self-constructed identity.