Akşehir (District Municipality, Turkey)

Last modified: 2019-11-16 by ivan sache
Keywords: akşehir |
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Flag of Akşehir - Image by Jens Pattke, 3 October 2012

• Flag of Akşehir
• Former municipalities
  • Doğrugöz
• Professional boards
  • Akşehir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Akşehir Ticaret ve Sanayi Odası)
  • Akşehir Commodity Exchange (Akşehir Ticaret Borsası)

See also:

• Turkey
• Konya Province

Flag of Akşehir

The flag of Akşehir (photo) is white with the municipality's emblem. "Belediyesi" means "Municipality".

The emblem pictures the town's namesake, Hodja Nasreddin. A Seljuk satirical Sufi figure, very popular in the Islamic world, the Hodja lived in the 13th century and is considered as a folk philosopher and a wise man, remembered for his funny stories and anecdotes.
The Hodja wanted to ride his donkey one day. Standing on the mounting block to the left of the animal, he put his right foot in the stirrup, and in one fluid movement mounted his ride, backwards. The bystanders laughed, and asked him: "Hodja, why are you sitting back to front?" Yet the Hodja answered: I'm sitting as I should, but this unfortunate donkey is facing the wrong way".
Though Hodja Nasreddin lived in Akşehir for many years, for all men a day is ordained on which they must die. When that day had come and gone, the Hodja's body was buried in the town's graveyard. He had become quite popular in town over the years, and the people of Akşehir brought together the money for a fitting tomb for the Hodja.
It was not long after the tomb was erected that on a Friday the guard of the graveyard saw the ghost of the Hodja appear before him. "Quick, go to the mosque," said the Hodja's ghost to him: "tell everyone there, to come to my grave. They'll see me ride the tomb like I once rode my donkey. Let them all come."
The guard ran to the mosque as fast as he could and delivered his message. Well, there is many an opportunity for prayer, yet rare are the occasions where a ghost announces his presence beforehand. Everyone in the mosque accompanied the guard back to the graveyard. And there they stood, and waited. And waited. And waited. But the ghost of the Hodja didn't make an appearance. It began to dawn on those present that once more, the Hodja had played a trick on them.
But just when they were about to protest this, behind them in the city, the roof of the mosque collapsed. When the ground had stopped its trembling, one of them hesitantly began: "If the Hodja ...". He didn't have to finish that sentence. Nasreddin Hodja has been revered in Aksehir ever since.
[Z. Bayraktar. 2012. Bosna Hersek Sözlü Kültüründe Nasreddin Hoca Tipi Üzerine. Journal of Academic Social Science Studies 3, 33-42]

Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg & Tomislav Šipek, 16 January 2013

Former municipalities

Doğrugöz

Flag of Doğrugöz - Image by Tomislav Šipek, 21 October 2017

The flag of Doğrugöz (photo) was white with the municipal emblem.

Tomislav Šipek, 21 October 2017

Professional boards

Akşehir Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Flag of the Akşehir Chamber of Commerce and Industry - Image by Ivan Sache, 24 October 2017

The flag of the Akşehir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (photo, photo, photo, photo) is white with the organization's emblem.

Ivan Sache, 24 October 2017

Akşehir Commodity Exchange

Flag of the Akşehir Commodity Exchange - Image by Ivan Sache, 4 September 2019

At the monthly assembly of the Akşehir Chamber of Commerce and Industry in April 1984, the necessity of establishment of a Commodity Exchange in the district, which has sufficient agricultural and animal product procurement and the commercial enterprise and factory of these products, was explained, and an entrepreneur (founders) board was formed and the necessary establishment activities were established.
As a result of the work of the industrialists and traders from Akşehir, the former retired Secretary General of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ahmet Géuuml;rel Tekelioğlu, who was elected to the Board of Founders, the organization was established on 1 June 1984 with the consent of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
[Corporate website]

The flag of the Akşehir Commodity Exchange (photo, photo, photo) is white with the organization's emblem.
Hodja Nasreddin is represented on the emblem exactly as on the municipal emblem, but riding to the opposed direction (still sitting back to front, of course).
The motto reads "Power Born in the Middle of the World".

Ivan Sache, 4 September 2019