Burning Down the Flag

Flag desecration in Turkmenistan

National flags are cherished and protected symbols in many countries. What exactly the flag symbolizes for different people certainly differs: national pride, tradition, history. Lately, several videos of activists burning the Turkmen flag have gone viral, triggering widespread outrage in the Turkmen-speaking segment of the social media. The videos by the Turkmen bloggers and activists on YouTube and TikTok show them desecrating the national flag publicly by burning it and/or by stepping on it. This started in May 2025 and it has intensified since then.

Turkmens on social media expressed deep anger over the disrespect shown to the national flag calling it a grave insult to the nation and the people of Turkmenistan. The government’s deafening silence is not only non-assuring; it may be further fueling hate speech on social media, inciting and deepening the tribalism and regionalism in the country.

The symbolic act of burning a flag is a form of protest that is deemed constitutionally protected symbolic speech for example, in the United States, though it remains a divisive issue. By burning a flag, individuals often express strong disapproval of a government or its policies. Turkmen experience is not unique in this aspect. What is new is that Turkmen activists and bloggers are using this tactic as a last resort to draw attention to their individual and collective plight, egregious violations of human rights, to lack of freedom to criticize the government’s policies, to widening social and economic inequalities, to poverty, grand corruption and intensified transnational repression (such as forced return of numerous Turkmen migrants based in Turkiye to Turkmenistan).

The central question the Turkmen public is grappling with is what exactly does the Turkmen flag represent? Turkmenistan never had any public discourse, let alone academic or legal analysis, on this issue. Years of aggressive censorship has decimated independent thought, critical thinking and scholarship in Turkmenistan. Does the flag represent freedom, identity and strength or does it represent repression, discrimination and government’s mismanagement?

Context is very important here. Turkmens have little knowledge of their history and heroes who fought for and died to establish and keep Turkmenistan as a country. The current regime acts as if there was no history or national struggle before it came into the power. This sustained suppression of truth, facts and history is backfiring in the form of violent rhetoric. The public discussions have been accompanied by significant hate, name-calling, profanities and threats of retaliation.

The Constitution of Turkmenistan defines the national flag as one of the state symbols. Publicly burning the national flag is illegal and the country’s Criminal Code also describes penalties for desecrating the state symbols.

Flag burners’ arguments

Those supporting the burning of flags believe that the Turkmen flag is a special symbol in national life but it does not represent all Turkmens of every background or walk of life. They find that desecrating it is uniquely provocative. Their individual and collective voices and grievances are not heard by the government. There are no channels or mechanisms to process their grievances in the country. They want this action to serve as a wake-up call for the apathetic and depoliticized public in Turkmenistan. Many in this group assert that this is a last resort to draw the attention of compatriots to the dire situation in the country. The fact that it has been started by an activist based outside of the country does not matter here. The act has instigated massive public reaction inside and outside of the country.

Opposition to flag burning

Those opposed see flag burning as a statement of contempt, hostility, and violence against Turkmenistan, the Motherland, and its people. This group does not connect this act with the current regime’s policies and governance. It sees as it an attack on the honor of the Motherland.

There is a segment of the public serving as the regime’s proxy and the state propaganda’s cultural ambassadors. Those are the vocal social influencers who serve and have a stake in autocratic regime. They use deeply offensive hate speech in attacking the activists and using propaganda tactics to divert attention from the structural issues created by the autocratic leadership.

The government’s silence and lack of position on the flag burning is disturbing but not so much for the public of Turkmenistan. The autocratic government’s default setting is to treat public’s concerns with silence and neglect. By keeping these conversations only to social media (which is only accessible with a VPN inside the country) not only fuels the culture of hate speech but also leads to radicalization of strategies by disillusioned young people. When the proxy propaganda social media (tacitly supported by the Turkmen government) are encouraged or at least not discouraged to stoke the fires of violent rhetoric, then this leaves no room for constructive dialogue. The cycle of violence continues.

Aynabat Yaylymova
Executive Director
Progres Foundation