Tarak Tamga (, ) is the

tamga A tamga or tamgha (from ) was an abstract seal or brand used by Eurasian nomads initially as a livestock branding, and by cultures influenced by them. The tamga was used as a livestock branding for a particular tribe, clan or family. They wer ...

of the

Crimean Tatars Crimean Tatars (), or simply Crimeans (), are an Eastern European Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group and nation indigenous to Crimea. Their ethnogenesis lasted thousands of years in Crimea and the northern regions along the coast of the Blac ...

, and was first used during the

Giray dynasty The House of Giray (, ; ), also the Girays, were the Genghisid/ Turkic dynasty that reigned in the Khanate of Crimea from its formation in 1431 until its downfall in 1783. The dynasty also supplied several khans of Kazan and Astrakhan between 1 ...

. It has since became the most used emblem to represent the ethnic group.

History

The use of this symbol began during the

, and was also present on the flag of the

Crimean Khanate The Crimean Khanate, self-defined as the Throne of Crimea and Desht-i Kipchak, and in old European historiography and geography known as Little Tartary, was a Crimean Tatars, Crimean Tatar state existing from 1441 to 1783, the longest-lived of th ...

. It was also present on the seal of the short-lived

Crimean People's Republic The Crimean People's Republic ( Crimean Tatar: ; ; ) or Crimean Democratic Republic was a self-declared state that existed from December 1917 to January 1918 in the Crimean Peninsula. The Republic was one of many short-lived states that declare ...

in 1917. Since the 1980s, many who were displaced during the

Deportation of the Crimean Tatars The deportation of the Crimean Tatars (, Cyrillic: Къырымтатар халкъынынъ сюргюнлиги) or the ('exile') was the ethnic cleansing and the cultural genocide of at least 191,044 Crimean Tatars that was carried out ...

began to return, and a blue flag with the Tarak Tamga were often used to represent their ethnic identity.

Gallery

Flag_of_the_Crimean_Tatar_people.svg Religious_flag_of_the_Crimean_Tatars.svg Green tatar flag.png Taraq tamga and Tawhid.jpg Military_flag_of_the_Crimean_Tatars.svg

References

{{morecat, date=June 2025 Crimean Tatars Crimean Khanate History of Crimea Flags of Ukraine