Turkish construction giant ENKA announced on February 9 on Facebook that one of its subsidiary companies is working on building the world’s tallest flagpole to be erected in Baku, Azerbaijan in April this year.
According to ENKA, the flagpole of 191 meters, once finished, will be shipped from Black Sea via Volga-Don canal and Caspian Sea to shoreline of Baku. The costs of the construction and transport of the pole are not disclosed. The pole will stand out “with its design and engineering works due to the strong winds” of Baku, the statement reads.
From next day on, Azerbaijani media started to circulate the news, though the authorities have not released a statement on the topic yet.
The would-be tallest flagpole will be second of its kind Azerbaijan will have, after erecting a 162-meter flagpole in 2010, which at the time became the world’s tallest one, but lost the record to Tajikistan in 2011 where a 165-meter flagpole was built. Reportedly, overall 30 million $ was spent to build the flagpole and the square in which it was erected. In 2017, the national flag was taken down from the pole after repeatedly being torn by the wind, and the pole was disassembled and removed.
Azerbaijani public wasn’t so excited to learn of the new tallest flagpole, given the experience with the previous one. Anar Mammadli, political analyst, wrote on Facebook:
“I think this pole has a wide symbolic meaning – its height will indicate the scale of greed, inferiority complex and corruption in public administration.
Come on, build it, and we will point to the pole every time we talk about mismanagement in the country.”
