Figure 1: The Berber, Assyrian and Aramean flags
In the previous parts, I have spoken about the Egyptian, Greek and Lebanese flags, and I have demonstrated why some are reflective of their component nationalities (like the Lebanese) and some aren’t (like the Egyptian). These countries flags represent sovereign states. Some may think that only sovereign states can have flags to represent them. The truth, however, is that flags are used by non-sovereign entities throughout the world. These flags of non-sovereign entities are often called ‘ethnic flags’, but in truth they are almost always national minority flags, representing cultural nations, whether the minority is an ethnic, religious, lingual or purely cultural.
Such non-sovereign flags of cultural nations include flags of nations that possess a specific territory, and enjoy a territorial autonomy (regional self-government), such as in the case of the English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland cases. The United Kingdom is a sovereign state but it is recognisably a multi-national state that is composed of four regional nations. Their separate flags are officially recognised too. However, in the UK there are other nationalities that are regional though small, such as the Manx in the Isle of Man, which is self-governed, and the Cornish in Cornwall, which is not self-governed; and these small nationalities have their own flags that represent them. In Spain, the Catalonia and the Basque region are self-governed, and they have their particular flags. We see the same in Canada with the Quebec flag; in Belgium with the Flemish (Flanders) flag; and in France with the Alsace and Corsican flags. Some of these flags, as is the case with the Scottish, the Catalan and the Basque, represent irredentist movements that seek to achieve independence and create sovereign states. But it is important to know that not all nations that enjoy regional self-government within a multi-national state are separatist. In fact, the majority of such nations are happy staying as part of the multi-national state. As nations within multi-national states use flags to represent them, irredentist or not, other nations that are spread across states sometimes set up flags for themselves to reflect their identity and represent their desire for union, such as those flags of pan-Arabism and pan-Slavism.
But, more importantly, for us Copts specifically, are the flags created by nations that are scattered across multinational-states, whether recognised as thus by their dominant nationalities or not. Some of these nations enjoy a large degree of non-territorial (national cultural) autonomy and some are denied it by those nationalities (usually national majorities) that are dominant in the state. Nonetheless, such national minorities, who mostly see themselves as cultural nationalities (i.e. non-political, or in other words, they do not seek secession), defiantly create flags for themselves to represent their cultural identity in their home country/ies and abroad (in the diaspora). There are Berber flag, Aramean flag, Assyrian flag, Druze flag, Sami flag, Australian Aboriginal flag, Roma People flag, Maori flag, Dinks Tribe flag, Oromo flag, Tigray flag, Amhara flag, Maasai flag, Afar flag, Crimean Tartars flag, Circassian flag, and more.
The Copts must have their own flag to reflect their national cultural identity and to represent them in Egypt and in the Diaspora. We have seen that similar nationalities like the Copts do enjoy the possession of their particular flags, even in the Arab world, such as in Algeria and Lebanon where the Berber and Druze flags are officially recognised. There is no reason, therefore, not to do as the Berber and Druze, and hundreds of national minorities across the world, have done. Only minorities that are not brave enough shrink away from adopting special flag to represent their cultural identity, and this does not happen except in totalitarian states that are ruled exclusively by oppressive and dominant majorities. We must work to change that; and we must have our own flag to represent us, as a unique cultural nationality, different from other nationalities in Egypt. A flag is not just a piece of cloth; it does not only represent an identity – it is, above all, a manifestation of a resistance spirit that seeks to preserve one’s own identity against assimilation and the onslaught of the culture of the dominant majority. For this, the Coptic nationalists have proposed a meaningful Coptic flag, which the reader can read about here.