The Twelve Stars: Reading the Circassian Flag
Three arrows, twelve stars, and a green field — what each element stood for, and what it has come to mean.
The flag is usually explained in a sentence: twelve stars for twelve principalities, three arrows for unity. The sentence is true and incomplete.
What the arrangement recorded was a decision — that a dozen groups who had governed themselves separately would be counted as one. The flag outlived the confederation it was made for, which is why it now hangs in halls from Amman to Kayseri.