Where did the Acehnese flag that stirred the Indonesian government come from and whether it was important for Aceh? Prior to this, when the Aceh flag issue strengthened and the Minister of Home Affairs rejected it, some parties took issue seriously. Prior to the signing of the Helsinki MoU between GAM and the Republic of Indonesia on August 15, 2005, the flag was raised on behalf of the Aceh Sumatra State (NAS). According to Hasan di Tiro (HT), that is the Aceh flag he termed the NAS.
Before the Helsinki MoU, it was heard that some of the guys said that the black and white lines in Aceh's current flag were added by HT. The addition is mentioned as the creativity ability or creativity rights of a "Wali Neugara". The flag, in fact belongs to Turkey's Ottoman Empire State, the last era (early XX century) that was later adopted by the Turkish Parliamentary Republic.
When trying to declare NAS, HT picked up the flag and added a black and white line with some partially mentioned excuses and some hidden, for example because Aceh in the past was united with Ottoman Turks, HT took a Turkish flag for the NAS because the flag was one condition of a country.
According to a Turkish intellectual, in the 1980s, Hasan di Tiro once sent a letter to the Turkish state about Aceh Darussalam having ties to Ottoman Turks and the declaration of the NAS. But Turkey did not reply to the letter and rejected the meeting with HT. This is similar to the treatment of Acehnese historians living in the Netherlands, Dr Iskandar, never replying to the HT letter.
However, the problem with Turkey escaped HT's view. He relied on the history of Aceh Darussalam with the Ottoman Turks, while the Turkish Parliamentary Republic tried to forget anything about the Ottoman Turks. When HT came to remind them of it, we can guess what happened. HT failed to lobby the Turkish State.
Unifying flag
What about the peudeueng natural flag? This is a more funny story. When some people opposed the Star Bulan flags for Aceh because they were close to GAM, another proposal came up, namely to propose a peudeueng (Aceh: sword flag) flag instead of the peudeueng nature used by the Aceh Darussalam Sultanate State accepted throughout the region in Aceh as a unifying flag.
Nature peudeueng is a red cloth flag, with a crescent moon and a five-eyed star, Ottoman-style Ottoman before the XX century, plus a picture of a sword called Zulfikar (Aceh: Zulfaka), the name of the sword Saidina Ali ra.
As is known, the Ottoman Turkish superpower, since the sixteenth century has been wearing a flag called the Zulfikar flag. A red flag adorned with various Turkish styles with the greatest picture of a straight-edged twin-edged sword, just like the index finger and the middle opening in large size. In the twin-edged sword image there is calligraphy, its straight handle has a hand protector on the left and right side of the dragon.
Now let us note the news that Aceh has raised the peudeueng nature created in the time of Sultan Ali Mughayatsyah, the first Aceh Darussalam sultan in the early sixteenth century. It was a time with the flying of the twin-eyed Zulfikar sword flags flagged by the Ottoman Empire's warlords.
Then, after the caravan of Lada Sicupak, the envoy of Sultan Al-Kahar the Great returned from Istanbul in the mid-sixteenth century, in the 1560s, the red flag of Zulfikar sword plus the crescent moon and the star to be flown on every Aceh ship in the waters of the Strait of Melaka, that Aceh entered into a coalition of the world at that time led by Muslims, with its administrative center in Istanbul under the Ottoman Caliph.
Then, before the Dutch attack, at the end of the nineteenth century the sultan of Aceh Darussalam sent another envoy to Istanbul to reaffirm the relationship with the Ottoman Turks. But the effort failed because of the sabotage of the Netherlands and its allies through the media in Cairo and direct mission to Istanbul requesting that the Ottoman Turks no longer help Aceh. The Ottoman Empire faced a dilemma, they could not help Aceh in the South East at which time they themselves were wracked by a major war against the Western Christian coalition.
When Aceh was still a major country called the Sultanate of Aceh Darussalam, the flag was important for Aceh. The Turkish flag flown on Aceh's warships patrolling the waters of the Straits of Melaka became one of the forces to make the Portuguese tremble because Ottoman Turks were their biggest enemy in the Mediterranean.
Political reasons
Now, although officially the Dutch as an attacker did not get letters of sovereignty over the sultanate of Aceh, but the State of Aceh Darussalam has become history. And, HT does not proclaim the State of the Sultanate of Aceh Darussalam, but the NAS which he calls the State connection of the Sultanate of Aceh Darussalam, for several political reasons.
The importance of whether or not a flag for Aceh which is a province within the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia depends on the individual's point of view. Already we know that the flag that the DPRA insisted on proposing it for the Home Affairs approved now is the NAS flag created by HT based on the Ottoman-era Ottoman-era flag and the present Turkish Palementer Republic.
In this case, no one from Aceh appreciates its history properly, or does not value the services of others. No one from Aceh, other than HT, contacted Turkey for their flag that had been used for more than 400 years.
Indeed, the secular Parliamentary Republic of Turkey is not interested in taking care of and has no right over the Usmani Ottoman flag used in Aceh. Moreover HT has modified it when taken for NAS. But Turkey, sovereign and powerful, used its similar flag used in Aceh without having to modify it. Instead, there is an alignment of this flag by GAM's negotiators who are now all Indonesian citizens (WNI).
The Government of Indonesia should support whatever flags Aceh wants, because it will not affect anything in politics because the Helsinki MoU has made the NAS officially within the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. While the superpower in Southeast Asia, the Sultanate of Aceh Darussalam has disappeared after being attacked by the Dutch laknatillah and its allies.
Will the Home Affairs Minister approve the Aceh flag used by NAS for Aceh province or not and it is suggested that the flag be replaced by peudeueng nature? If nature peudeung which is the flag of the Sultanate of Aceh Darussalam officially flown again in Aceh, then the NKRI must be prepared to give up Aceh removed from the map.
From a historical perspective, the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia will remain intact when letting the Acehnese flag of HT's creation fly. It was because the peudeueng flag was the flag that the Dutch had requested in the ultimatum to the Sultan of Aceh Darusslam on March 26, 1873, not the Acehnese flag for the NAS created by HT.