Postcard from Bishkek

In last week’s weekly postcard, (posted on Saturday), I mentioned that, “Perhaps the strangest new item of the week is that the parliament has established a working group to change the country’s Flag and National Anthem.”

I wrote  a postcard about the Kyrgyz flag earlier in the month, so let me now turn my attention to the anthem.

Like any new nation – the Kyrgyz can be very patriotic. This is reflected in the proud traditions surrounding the Manas epic and the prevalence of the symbols of the young nation.  There is a law defining – the flag, the gerp (State seal), and the National Anthem as the official State Symbols  of the Kyrgyz Republic.

The current anthem, (replacing the one written by the renowned Kyrgyz tenor and composer Abdylas Maldabaev for the Khirghiz SSR), was adopted by the Jogorku Kenesh, (the parliament), on 18th December, 1992.  The music was composed by Nasyr Davlesov and Kalyi Moldobasanov, and the words were written by Djamil Sadykov and Eshmambet Kuluev.

There are official versions of the anthem in Kyrgyz and Russian – but not, as far as we are aware, in English.

Poetry is very difficult to translate – but to give you a taste of their love for the mountains, the friendliness of the people and their optimism in the future, here is an unofficial translation which I asked someone to write for me a few years ago:

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A CD featuring the State Symphonic Orchestra, the choir of the Kyrgyz State Broadcasting Company and the Choir of the State Opera and Ballet Theatre, is available containing three versions of the anthem – a full choral version and two instrumental versions.

There are several versions posted on youtube, here is one, being sung in Kyrgyz and accompanied by a series of photographs:

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The music is rather martial – slow, deep and sonorous – and conveys a gravitas which embodies its status as a state symbol.

The question of gravitas and respect shown for the anthem during performances has been a regular issue for the deputies who have introduced several measures designed to emphasise them.  At the end of 2008, for example, an amendment to the legislation obliged Kyrgyz citizens to stand up and put their right hand over the heart during the playing of the national anthem; in 2009 another amendment required Kyrgyz citizens to sing the anthem if they were present during an official performance of the anthem and in 2011 another required that hats should not be worn during performances, (with some exceptions provided, including: those wearing the national hat, the ak kalpak; in bad weather conditions; headgear worn for health reasons; as part of military uniform; or where headgear is requirement of someone’s religion).

On the same day that the deputies decided to set up a commission to change the flag and the anthem, there was another spat about it in the chamber. At the previous session, one of the deputies had suggested singing the national anthem prior to every plenary session.   On this occasion he reminded the speaker about the proposal and distributed the text of the national anthem.  The speaker’s response was to say that the proposal should be studied by lawyers at first and proposed to vote for consideration of the proposal by lawyers.  The deputy retorted that it was not worth doing this and the proposal to sing the national anthem was just respect for the Law on State Symbols and then he began to sing the national anthem in protest, without musical accompaniment.

Although the incident may seem a “storm in a teacup”, it’s a good example of the sense of national pride felt by many of the Kyrgyz.

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However, the desire of another parliamentarian to change the flag and the anthem struck me as odd.  I wondered what the reasoning behind the suggestion was. So far, I have not seen any rationale behind the proposed changes.  Now, there is no reason why the state symbols should not be changed – a lot of country’s do this.  Iraq, for example, has had seven flags, since 1921.  Usually, however, there is a good reason for introducing these changes, such as a change of territoriality.

The Stars and Stripes, the flag of the United States of America, for example, is amended whenever a new state is incorporated into the union by the addition of star in the blue panel in the top right hand corner of the flag.  The last time it was changed was back in 1950 when Alaska and Hawaii were afforded statehood.

The last time the Union Jack, (the flag of the United Kingdom), was changed back in 1801.  There were suggestions that it should be revised in 1922 when the Irish Free State, (now the Irish Republic), became a separate state independent of the UK, but it was decided that as the province of Ulster, (or at least the main part of it) was remaining a part of the Kingdom, there was no need to remove the elements that symbolized the cross of St. Patrick in the design.  There have also been suggestions to include a symbol to represent Wales, which has no separate element in the design and the Principality was subsumed by England well before the flag was created.  Once again, however, no changes were made.

There has been no change, in the territorial integrity of Kyrgyzstan, so I am at a loss to see why the proposal has emerged at this time.

I am also intrigued why the anthem has also been included in the proposal – and I wonder why the third state symbol, (the Gerp, or state seal), wasn’t included as well.

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Tags: For_the_Record, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Music