Kyrgyzstan’s Flag Change 🇰🇬

 

(This is the new and current flag of Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬.) 

 

On December 26, 2023, the Central Asian country known as Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬 officially changed its flag. The country’s parliament known as the Zhorgorku Kengesh held a debate about changing the design on the flag. The point of contention were the rays of the sun symbol ☀️, which some within the Zhorgorku Kengesh felt resembled a sunflower 🌻, and sunflowers 🌻 are a somewhat negative symbol with Kyrgyz culture. Sunflowers 🌻 mean “a fickle and servile person willing to switch allegiance for personal benefit.”

So, they decided to straighten the rays of the sun symbol ☀️ to more properly convey that it is supposed to be a sun ☀️ with the roof of a traditional Kyrgyz yurt 🛖 on it, and not a sunflower 🌻 with the roof a traditional Kyrgyz yurt 🛖. There were some protests 🪧 and opposition to the flag change among the Kyrgyz population 🇰🇬, but despite any protest 🪧 or opposition to the flag change, the bill to change the flag still ended up passing, and that’s how we ended up with the flag we’re using now. It really seemed like the Kyrgyz people 🇰🇬 really had no say in the matter. Is Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬 a democracy? It kind of seems like it isn’t. Which wouldn't be a huge shock to me considering most Central Asian countries are not democracies and are authoritarian. Maybe it’s cause of that Russian influence 🇷🇺. That Soviet influence ☭ is still kind of rubbing off on these countries.

Really, only the post-Soviet countries ☭ in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus became somewhat healthy democracies, and of those countries, only the Baltic countries, Estonia 🇪🇪, Latvia 🇱🇻, and Lithuania 🇱🇹, Ukraine 🇺🇦, and of course Georgia 🇬🇪 are the ones who turned out the best as far as democracy and civil liberties and all that good stuff is concerned. And those are the countries that Russia 🇷🇺 targets the most, and wants to reabsorb. So, it begs the question, is there a correlation between the type of government a post-Soviet country ☭ has and the likelihood it will face Russian aggression 🇷🇺? Like, the more democratic and pro-Western a post-Soviet country ☭ is, will it be the more at risk of facing Russian aggression 🇷🇺? Is Russia 🇷🇺 more likely to threaten that country, and use military force against it?

It’s just something to think about considering that Russia 🇷🇺 hasn’t threatened or targeted any of the post-Soviet countries ☭ in Central Asia, and seems to have a pretty tight grip on them. The only exemption to this was Kazakhstan 🇰🇿, which faced a CSTO invasion and occupation led by Russia 🇷🇺 in early 2022 (before Russia 🇷🇺 invaded Ukraine 🇺🇦), since Russia 🇷🇺 is the leader of that particular military alliance. But, even then, the Kazakh government 🇰🇿 asked for that intervention.

 

(These are the flags of the CSTO, or Collective Security Treaty Organization, and Kazakhstan 🇰🇿.)

 

They wanted the CSTO to come in, and help quell these anti-government protests 🪧 that were happening in the country due to the rising gas prices (as in natural gas 🔥 if I’m not mistaken), as well as general discontent against corruption within the government and the government’s more authoritarian bent. And of course, Russia 🇷🇺, Kazakhstan 🇰🇿, and the other CSTO members blamed these protests 🪧 on the West, particularly the United States 🇺🇸, which Russia 🇷🇺 has blamed for other protest movements 🪧 within the former Soviet Union ☭, including the Maidan Uprising in Ukraine 🇺🇦 which led to the current Russo-Ukrainian War 🇷🇺🇺🇦. 

After all, there’s no way any of these protest movements 🪧 could be genuine, there’s no way the people in these countries could genuinely hate their governments and be dissatisfied with their leaders, right? I’m being sarcastic if you couldn’t tell. Of course, these conspiracy theories about so-called “color revolutions” orchestrated by the US 🇺🇸 are just coping mechanisms for these authoritarian post-Soviet governments ☭, including the Kremlin. These post-Soviet dictators and one-party states really don’t want to believe that their people might hate them, and want to see real change. So, they’d rather just sit and pretend that it’s all the West’s fault, and the West is out to get them. It’s that sort of mentality that led to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine 🇺🇦 in 2022, and of course led to the Russian invasion of Georgia 🇷🇺🇬🇪 in 2008.

I say Russian invasion 🇷🇺 in that case because Vladimir Putin wasn’t the president of Russia 🇷🇺 in 2008, Dmitry Medvedev was. So, it was Medvedev’s invasion of Georgia 🇬🇪. But, the real architect of the invasion of Georgia 🇬🇪 was Putin himself. Medvedev was just a puppet president that Putin used to maintain his influence, his hold over the government. Because Putin had reached his term limit because the Russian constitution 🇷🇺 at the time only allowed presidents to serve two four year terms (similar to how it is in the US 🇺🇸). So, he stepped down, and instead became Medvedev’s prime minister.

So, he wasn’t the president, but he still held a high enough position of power to maintain his hold on the Kremlin, and work behind-the-scenes to make Medvedev do what he wanted. Which included changing the constitution to allow presidents to serve six years in a single term instead of just four. Years later, when Putin was president again, he changed the constitution again to allow presidents to serve indefinitely, as long as they want. Meaning that he pretty much wants to be president for life. But, back to Medvedev, I’m also sure that Putin pushed him to invade Georgia 🇬🇪, and carve out two pieces of Georgian territory 🇬🇪 to form two fake illegitimate statelets with puppet governments, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

(These are the flags of Russia 🇷🇺 and Georgia 🇬🇪.)

 

Which basically allow Russia 🇷🇺 to occupy Georgia 🇬🇪 indefinitely, since they weren’t technically occupying Georgian territory 🇬🇪, but the territory of two new “independent” countries. Essentially, they did in Georgia 🇬🇪 what they’ve been trying to do in Ukraine 🇺🇦, and were a lot more successful. The only thing they haven’t done yet is annex Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which I’m sure they’ll eventually do at some point, especially if they’re allowed to win in Ukraine 🇺🇦. But, for now they remain two puppet states occupied by Russian troops 🇷🇺.

 

(These are the flags of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the two Russian puppet states 🇷🇺 that Russia 🇷🇺 carved out of Georgia 🇬🇪 following the Russo-Georgian War 🇷🇺🇬🇪. The flag on top is the Abkhazian flag and the one on the bottom is the South Ossetian flag. Technically, they already existed by the time the war started, but the war kind of secured their independence, or faux independence since neither of these were real countries, have pro-Russian leaders 🇷🇺 who were probably hand-selected and backed by the Kremlin, and they were both occupied by Russia 🇷🇺. So, are they really independent? To this day, the Russians 🇷🇺 still occupy Abkhazia and South Ossetia as a way of threatening Georgia 🇬🇪 like some kind of Damocles’s sword 🗡️. That’s how the Georgians 🇬🇪 see Abkhazia and South Ossetia, just ways for Russia 🇷🇺 to threaten them since neither of them would really even exist if it weren’t for Russia 🇷🇺, and Russia 🇷🇺 interfering in Georgia 🇬🇪’s internal affairs.)

 

Similar to Transnistria in Moldova 🇲🇩, and the DPR and LPR in Ukraine 🇺🇦 (before they got annexed), very few countries in the world recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as legitimate sovereign countries. The only ones that do are Russia 🇷🇺 of course, Syria 🇸🇾, Nauru 🇳🇷, Venezuela 🇻🇪, and Nicaragua 🇳🇮. And I’m sure none of those countries’ governments would have any problem with Russia 🇷🇺 annexing the two breakaway “countries.” Like I said, if Russia 🇷🇺 currently recognizes the independence of both Abkhazia and South Ossetia right now, there’s nothing stopping them from deciding to just annex them in the future. I mean, that’s what Putin did after he recognized the DPR and LPR as independent in 2022 just before he invaded Ukraine 🇺🇦. He just ended up annexing them later on that same year. So, if you’re an Abkhazian living in Abkhazia or an Ossetian living in South Ossetia, then, there’s pretty much nothing stopping Putin from deciding to just annex your territory. Anyway, I’m way off track with this, let’s get back to talking about the new Kyrgyz flag 🇰🇬.
 

I was surprised that Apple updated the Kyrgyzstan flag emoji 🇰🇬 to the new flag as quickly as they did. They still haven’t updated or changed the Afghanistan flag emoji, which still uses the flag of the previous government 🇦🇫, and not the flag of the current Taliban regime. Probably because no country in the world officially recognizes the Taliban government as the legitimate government of Afghanistan 🇦🇫. When or if that will ever change, and the flag emoji will be changed, is still yet to be seen. The flag emoji for Afghanistan 🇦🇫 may never change, so long as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan remains an unrecognized government.

 

(This is the old flag of Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬 that was used from 1992 to 2023.)

—

 

Note:  

(This is the flag of Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic ☭.) 

 

Even this subtle change to the flag 🇰🇬 may not be enough for some people. You see, Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬 used to be apart of the Soviet Union ☭. It was technically apart of the Russian Empire 🇷🇺 too, but the entity of Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬, or Kirghizia as it was known back then, wouldn’t really come into existence as it is now until after the founding of the Soviet Union ☭ in 1922. The Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic ☭, or Kirghiz SSR ☭ was founded in 1936 with the borders that Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬 still has now. Like, the other Soviet republics ☭, the Kirghiz SSR ☭ ceased to exist in 1991, and became the independent country that we know as Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬.

It dropped the Soviet flag ☭, and adopted the 1992-2023 flag that was shown at the end of the main text. And while, that was abandoned flag in favor of the current flag 🇰🇬, there are still some within the country who aren’t satisfied with either flag. The reason cited is that the red field reminds them too much of the country’s Soviet history ☭, and them wanting to distance the flag and the country as much from the Soviet past ☭ as possible. But, it doesn’t seem to be that common of an opinion since most Kyrgyz 🇰🇬 didn’t really seem to have a problem with the 1992-2023 flag, and while some don’t like the current flag 🇰🇬, it’s only because of the design of the sun rays on the symbol, not because the red color reminds them of communism ☭ or reminds them of the country’s violent past.

 

(These are flags of the Soviet Union ☭. The first one is a flag map of the Soviet Union ☭, showing the shape of the country, with the flag superimposed onto it. The second one is an actual location map of the Soviet Union ☭ showing the Kirghiz SSR ☭’s location within it. The Kirghiz SSR ☭ is one in red.)