Every year on June 26, Ukraine celebrates the Day of the Crimean Tatar Flag – one of the national symbols of the Crimean Tatars.
The Crimean Tatar flag was first raised in 1917, after the February Revolution. In 1919, the Crimean Tatar Parliamentary Bureau approved the "Regulations on the Cultural and National Autonomy of the Muslims of Crimea," which established the image of the tarak-tamga as the national emblem and a light blue flag as the national flag. This is the first documented mention of the status of the national emblem and flag of the Crimean Tatars in their modern form.
Due to the repressions of the Soviet Union against the Crimean Tatars and the establishment of a communist regime, the flag was not used. In 1929, the communist authorities declared the blue flag "bourgeois-nationalist" and prohibited its use. In the places of deportation of the Crimean Tatars after 1944, the possession of the flag was considered a crime against the Soviet authorities. By the 1970s and 1980s, a significant part of the Crimean Tatar youth did not know their flag.
Only in 1991, after the restoration of the Kurultai – the Crimean Tatar national institution, was a resolution adopted on the national flag and anthem of the Crimean Tatar people. The sky-blue flag, together with the Ukrainian flag, fluttered over Crimea.
The Day of the Crimean Tatar Flag was first celebrated in 2010 at the initiative of the Crimean Youth Center and other youth organizations. On August 29, 2010, at the III session of the V Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar people, a decision was made to celebrate the Day of the National Flag on June 26 – the day of the opening of the II Kurultai.
After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the Crimean Tatars were once again forced to leave their homeland, as Russia continued the repressive policies of the Soviet Union on the peninsula. The Crimean Tatar flag became a symbol of the struggle for Crimea not only for the Crimean Tatars but for all of Ukraine. This flag symbolizes the resistance of the Crimean Tatar people to all who have ever tried to destroy their culture.
Today, the Crimean Tatars, as representatives of the Ukrainian political nation, bravely fight against Russian aggressors in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine alongside all other free peoples of our country. For by defending Ukraine, we will surely return Crimea and, through our joint efforts, justly establish the future of the Crimean Tatar people there.
Courage and bravery, love for freedom, humanity, and self-respect have two colors in Ukraine, and they are shared by the flags of both our nations – Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar.