Gül Patch

The patch’s name comes from the Crimean Tatar word “gül” — “rose.”

Gül is one of the best-known symbols of Örnek, the traditional Crimean Tatar ornament inscribed in 2021 on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

In Crimean Tatar tradition, the rose symbolizes a woman—her beauty, wisdom, tenderness, and strength.

Above all, this symbol recalls those who preserve a home even when that home is no longer nearby.

Mothers and grandmothers who pass the language on to children. Women who preserve family stories. Those who know how to carry memory through generations as carefully as one carries a candle flame through the wind.

In traditional Örnek compositions, gül is often paired with male symbols. But here it stands alone.

As a reminder of women whose strength has long ceased to require proof.

We made this patch in blue and yellow. In the colors of two flags that today speak of the same things: freedom, dignity, and the right to return home.

The patch was created based on a work by Afize Yusuf-kyzy, a Crimean Tatar singer, glass-painting artist, civic activist, and former journalist for the ATR TV channel.