Kyrgyz activist detained for opposing plan to change national flag

Kyrgyz authorities on Friday detained activist Aftandil Jorobekov, one of the staunchest opponents of the government’s plan to change the national flag.

Jorobekov was questioned and charged with calls to “actively oppose authorities’ legal orders” and for mass disturbances and violence, according to his supporters. He will remain in police custody for two days.

His detention comes a day ahead of a rally he was organising in Bishkek against the parliamentary bill on making changes to the national flag.

In September some Kyrgyz MPs proposed ‘editing’ the sun’s rays on the country’s national flag, so the sun did not look like a sunflower. Parliament approved the bill in the first reading on 29 November.

The initiative has been strongly criticised by civil society and some MPs as a waste of time at the expense of other more important issues. 

According to reports, the authorities’ charges against Jorobekov are linked to the Facebook video he published on 6 December.

In the video Jorobekov said that “the authorities constantly promise to improve life in the country, but it never happens, and now they’ve decided to blame the lack of development on the flag”.

He said that 99 percent of Kyrgyz citizens were against any changes to the national flag.

His lawyer Mahabat Mamasaliyeva said that after Jorobekov’s detention, the police searched his home and seized his personal computer and gadgets.

In a Facebook video, before the detention, Jorobekov said that he was not afraid and intended to “fight for our flag till the end”.

Jorobekov had earlier attempted to organise a motor rally in support of the old flag – “Hands off the Flag”. The action was banned by a district court in Bishkek.

The idea to change the flag has been backed by President Sadyr Japarov.

“There were instances when visiting foreigners said that probably we have lots of sunflowers in our country,” he said in an interview in October. 

He said that if the bill is approved, “God willing”, “the sun will shine on us, and smile at us” and from then on ”we shall be a developed and independent country”. 

Kyrgyz art historian Altyn Kapalova has said those behind the “mad” idea to modify the national flag were driven either by “a desire to earn a place in history” or “superstition”.

She said the current flag is “a good piece of art”, and the new proposed version “kills its entire composition”.

“The sun’s rays [on the old flag] are drawn in a way that creates a sense of movement. What is movement? Movement is development,” she wrote.

“Those wavy rays are being replaced with spikes. What do they symbolise? Power? Bans? Fences?” she asked.

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