Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

has no official national emblem, but the

crescent and star The conjoined representation of a Star (heraldry), star and a crescent is used in various historical contexts, including as a prominent symbol of the Ottoman Empire, and in contemporary times, as a national symbol by some countries, and by some ...

(, ) design from the

national flag A national flag is a flag that represents and national symbol, symbolizes a given nation. It is Fly (flag), flown by the government of that nation, but can also be flown by its citizens. A national flag is typically designed with specific meanin ...

is in use on

Turkish passport Turkish passport () are issued to Turkish citizens for travel outside Turkey as per the Passport Act dated July 15, 1950. Citizens of the ''de facto'' state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus are also eligible to apply for a Turkish pass ...

Turkish identity card The Republic of Turkey Identity Card () is mandatory for all Turkish citizens from birth. The Turkish police are authorized to request identification at any time, and failure to comply may result in a fine. The identity card also serves as a trave ...

s and at the

diplomatic missions of Turkey This is a list of embassies and consulates of Turkey in countries around the world, representing Turkish interests and providing consular services to Turkish citizens abroad. These diplomatic missions serve as a vital link between Turkey and the ...

. The crescent and star are from the 19th-century

Ottoman flag The Ottoman Empire used various flags and naval ensigns during its history. The crescent and star came into use in the second half of the 18th century. A ' (decree) from 1793 required that the ships of the Ottoman Navy were to use a red flag with ...

(1844–1923) which also forms the basis of the present-day

Turkish flag The national flag of Turkey, officially the Turkish flag (), is a red flag featuring a white crescent and star on its emblem, based on the 18th-century Ottoman Empire flag. The flag is often called "the red flag" (), and is referred to as "the ...

. Following the abolition of the Sultanate on 1 November 1922, the

Ottoman coat of arms Every sultan of the Ottoman Empire had his own monogram, called the ''tughra'', which served as a royal symbol. A coat of arms in the European heraldic sense was created in the late 19th century. Hampton Court requested from the Ottoman Empire a ...

was no longer used and the crescent and star became Turkey's de facto national emblem. In the national identity cards of the 1930s the horns of the crescent were facing left, instead of the now more common orientation towards right.

History

The coat of arms of the Sultan was abolished from usage after the abolition of the Ottoman sultanate in 1922. In its stead, the star and crescent on the flag was adopted. Three years later, in 1925,

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

opened a contest for determining another official coat of arms and artist

Namık İsmail Namık İsmail (1890 in Samsun – August 30, 1935 in Istanbul) was a Turkish Impressionism, Impressionist painter and art educator, who received his training in France. Biography İsmail was born into an upper-class family that moved to Istanbul ...

's design won. İsmail's design featured a red shield charged with a white star and crescent. Underneath there was a

grey wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gr ...

, connected to

Oghuz Turkic The Oghuz languages are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family, spoken by approximately 108 million people. The three languages with the largest number of speakers are Turkish, Azerbaijani and Turkmen, which, combined, account for more ...

mythology, standing on a spear. The shield was surrounded by a garland of wheat and oak leaves, with a medallion depicting

Ottoman alphabet The Ottoman Turkish alphabet () is a version of the Perso-Arabic script used to write Ottoman Turkish for over 600 years until 1928, when it was replaced by the Latin-based modern Turkish alphabet. Though Ottoman Turkish was primarily written ...

letters ت and ج for "توركیه جمهوریتی" (''Türkiye Cumhuriyeti''), Republic of Turkey. Above the shield was placed a lit torch, symbolising the country's independence. However, the new coat of arms was never registered as an official coat of arms, and was never used subsequently. A 2014 government review to develop a coat of arms has yet to result in a design, as of 2015. File:Proposed national emblem of Turkey 1925.svg,

's proposed design

Use by government bodies

Red circle with white star and crescent

A circular section of the red

flag of Turkey The national flag of Turkey, officially the Turkish flag (), is a red flag featuring a white crescent and star on its emblem, based on the 18th-century Ottoman Empire flag. The flag is often called "the red flag" (), and is referred to as "the ...

containing the white crescent and star is used in the current emblems of a number of Turkish ministries and governmental institutions, in the emblem of the Grand National Assembly, and as the flag badge on the uniforms of Turkish national sports teams and athletes. It was also used on the old (non-digital) Turkish identity cards. File:Turkey emblem round.svg, Circular flag used as a

badge A badge is a device or accessory, often containing the insignia of an organization, which is presented or displayed to indicate some feat of service, a special accomplishment, a symbol of authority granted by taking an oath (e.g., police and fir ...

by the national sports teams and athletes, and for other semi- and quasi-official purposes File:Seal of the Turkish Parliament (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi).svg, Seal of the Grand National Assembly (parliament) File:Seal of Prime Ministry of the Republic of Turkey.svg, Seal of the Prime Ministry (historic)

Coat of arms of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The

Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Ministry of Foreign Affairs () is the governmental body responsible for conducting foreign relations of the Republic of Turkey. The Ministry is responsible for Turkey's diplomatic missions abroad as well as providing support for Turkish c ...

often uses a red

oval An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas of mathematics (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.), it is given a more precise definition, which may inc ...

-shaped

escutcheon Escutcheon may refer to: * Escutcheon (heraldry), a shield or shield-shaped emblem, displaying a coat of arms * Escutcheon (furniture), a metal plate that surrounds a keyhole or lock cylinder on a door * (in medicine) the distribution of pubic ha ...

which takes its colour from the Turkish flag, while its shape echoes the oval

shield A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry like spears or long ranged projectiles suc ...

at the center of the late 19th-century

. The escutcheon contains a gold-tone crescent and star which are vertically oriented (with the star on top) and surrounded by the gold-tone text ''T.C. Dışişleri Bakanlığı''. A variant of this oval escutcheon (containing the gold-tone text ''Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Büyükelçiliği'') is used by the Turkish embassies. File:Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Foreign Affairs logo.svg, Seal of the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

File:Tc buyukelcilikamblem.svg, Variant used by the

Embassies A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually denotes a ...

File:TC Consulate–General Emblem.svg, Variant used by the Consulate-Generals

Presidential seal

The seal of the president of Turkey has a large 16-pointed star in the center, which is surrounded by 16 five-pointed stars, symbolizing the

16 Great Turkic Empires The 16 Great Turkic Empires (, ) is a concept in Turkish nationalism introduced in 1969 by Akib Özbek, map officer and widely invoked by Turkish authorities during the 1980s, under the government of Kenan Evren. The list The "16 Great Tur ...

. Its appearance is regulated by law. File:Emblem of the Presidency of Turkey.svg, Presidential Seal of Turkey File:Emblem of the Presidency of Turkey (white).svg, Presidential with no background

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Emblems Of Turkey

National symbols of Turkey