Imaginary Flag of Hazarajat/Hazaristan (Afghanistan)

Last modified: 2002-11-23 by santiago dotor
Keywords: afghanistan | hazarajat | hazaristan |
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by Jaume Ollé

• Description

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• Afghanistan

The flag of the Hazara people. Their land is named Hazarajat, and is in Central Afghanistan, with the capital at Bamiyan. They are listed as a Turkish people, but I think that they are in fact of Mongol origin.

Jaume Ollé, 28 October 1996

I am a Hazara. Hazaras are both Turkish and Mongols. But they are the people of the same area where they are. There has never been any literature in this language in the past but now there is the first ever and very popular among them, a magazine called Tora Hazaragi Magazine. By the way it is not Hazaradjat but Hazarajat. But originally it was Hazaristan and now all Hazaras call our land again by its old name, please use the term Hazaristan.

Harold Andrew Changezi, 6 March 1999

I am a Hazara and (...) the Hazarajat or commonly known as Hazaristan does not have an official flag. It is possible that the flags represented on your website are of political manners but I have never seen that Hazarajat flag before. Please inform where you obtained that information. I would also like to clarify what Jaume Ollé wrote. The Hazara people are not listed as a Turkish people but a Turko-Mongoliad people. The Hazaras represent a mixture of 80% Moghol, 10% Turkish and 10% other races such as Chinese. The Hazaras are one of the oldest inhabitants of Afghanistan dating back from its harsh history. The buddi Bamiyan located in Bamiyan, one of which is the largest in the world, date back to the beginning of Afghanistan and the Hazara history.

"HazaraOnline", 1 February 2001

Flag of Hazaradjat was published by Michel Lupant in Gaceta de Banderas. He obtained his information in Turkey. Hazaradjat flag is in [a] poster of turk[ic] peoples. Until recently [it] was generally admi[tt]ed that hazaras came from mongol ethnic people, but (as [it] is possible [to] see in several hazaras sites) now this fact is in discussion. Of course turks claim that Hazaras came from ethnic turks and flag then was included in the posters of flags of turkish peoples. Flag is for Hazara people flag, but because for many years Hazaradjat was de facto independent and not ruled by the central government (I am not sure today, but until few months [ago] Hazaradjat was the single important region together [with] Badakshan that was not ruled by [the] Taliban) this flag can be considered the national one. Unfortunately [it] seems that there are two o[p]posed militias in hazaradjat and I assume that in the fight between both, each one hoist[s its] own militia flag, and the project of [a] national flag is generally forgot. Blue is generally considered as [the] color of the mongol and the turks (i.e. Balkars, Karachays, Uigurs...) and [the] flag can be accepted by both (defensors of turkish ethnicity and defensors of mongol ethnicity).

Jaume Ollé, 3 February 2001

The poster shows flags of Turkic origin, as well as a series of postage stamps of a similar theme which were published nearly at the same time. The postage stamps series shows several flags of old origin, old Turkic states, which are shown with modern design flags. They all are fantasy. Possibly the flags on that poster also are Turkic fantasy, as they show flags of states or areas claimed in one or another way by Turkey, and the flags are in quite modern Turkic manner/design.

Ralf Stelter, 3 February 2001

I don't have the poster, but as far I know [the] rest of the poster's published flags were later confirmed. I agree that flags in post stamps are phantasies (or at less a bit phantasious) but were well considered in several vex[illological] bulletins, and they were published in the book Vlaggen en historie turks sprekende volkeren in heden en verleden edited by VDCN [Flag Documentation Center of the Netherlands] dated 1994.

Jaume Ollé, 4 February 2001

By whom or what and how [confirmed that poster's flags]? Most vexillological bulletins wrote —as far as I know— that they were no real flags and pure fantasy. [Not] everything that is written black on white is true. The brochure by the VDCN was written taking only Turkish informations, and not based on anything proofed or researched, and gives no sources at all.

Ralf Stelter, 4 February 2001

The information was published in Gaceta de Banderas 29 May 1996. In fact I discovered that information under the name of HAZRA in a Turkish magazine I bought in Istanbul. It is a flag plate on Turkish people magazine Tarih no.109, Ocak 1996 (also no.100, Nisan 1995, and no.98, Subat 1995). It is only an illustration labelled 'HAZAR (Milli Bayrak)'. I do not think it is an official flag in Afghanistan. (...) It is probably the flag of [Turkish] irredentists not a provincial flag.

Michel Lupant, 6-7 February 2001