Symbolic Nation-Building in Kyrgyzstan: The Flag as a Part of Identity of Kyrgyzstani

Abstract

This thesis focuses on exploring the nation-building process in Kyrgyzstan since independence, putting the flag at the center of the research. Since 1991, the government has made several attempts at consolidating the nation by promoting a common identity. The most ubiquitous projects were the Manas Epic with its Seven Commandments and the idea of “Kyrgyzstan is our common home.” However, as a result, most of the nation-building projects were unsuccessful. This thesis attempts to examine and analyze the flag as a successful symbolic nation-building project. It studies the role of the flag of Kyrgyzstan for people. Specifically, the analysis will go through the coincidence of the message on the symbols of the flag by nation-builders and its popular understanding. To find out to what extent the flag is a symbolic nation-building project, and to understand the role of the flag and its coincidence, 35 interviews were conducted among a diverse group of population in front of the flags of the Ala-Too square and Orto-Sai village near Bishkek. In addition, to analyze the position of nation-builders, there were 5 interviews conducted with the practitioners of nation-building: the co-author of the flag, the art director who printed the first flag, the ideology expert, the current State-Secretary and a philology lecturer at a state university. The thesis found that the popular understanding of the flag varies in terms of the symbols of the flag, specifically in 40 rays of the sun and tunduk. For the one people, the symbols depict multinational ideas, where the 40 rays of the sun are 40 different nations; for the others, the 40 rays of the sun hold the ethnic-nationalistic ideas, that they represent 40 Kyrgyz tribes. However, the thesis asserts that the flag of Kyrgyzstan is a successful nation-building project because people consider the flag as a part of their identities: the flag is popular and familiar among people, the message of Manas in the flag is depicted in the ideas of people as nation-builders intended, the attempts to change the flag were unsuccessful, and finally, the flag evokes emotions.