On December 8, the administrative center of Balkan velayat hosted a grand ceremony of opening a new square with a flagpole for the State Flag of Turkmenistan. Held in honor of the upcoming national holiday, Neutrality Day, the important event is highly symbolic. Under the Flag of sacred independence, our neutral country has been making new history, reaching yet greater heights on the road of prosperity and progress, winning the global name recognition as a powerful, fast-developing country, where ancestral spiritual traditions and moral values blend harmoniously with the modern positive innovations. The national Flag has great importance in instilling in the younger generation a sense of patriotism and pride in the native country, in cultivating respect for high universal ideals. The opening ceremony in Balkanabat was attended by representatives of local and regional authorities, public organizations, honorary elders and many young people. The State Anthem of Turkmenistan performed on the occasion added an air of great solemnity to the event and heightened patriotic feelings of the people assembled. The sacred green flag was hoisted up the flagpole at a height of 100 meters. The ceremony participants inclined their heads before the State Flag of Turkmenistan following an age-old national tradition. Faced with granite and marble, a magnificent architectural ensemble (total area of 3.34 hectares) is located in one of Balkanabat’s new neighborhoods created along the Gurbansoltan eje Avenue. In the center of the square, on a solid pedestal, there is a snow-white, soaring skyward pole – an embodiment of Turkmenistan’s triumphant advance in reaching new heights of progress, lofty goals and achievements. Construction of the objects of such kind is a special engineering and technical category. The flagstaff supports the 20x30-meter color cloth of the Flag (600 square meters). A guard of honor will be on service at the flagpole. The square is also equipped with large monitors, which display a portrait of President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov and the Symbols of the State – the National Emblem and the Flag. In the four corners of the square, there are four 22-meter-high columns in the shape of minarets, and the comfortable benches and beautiful decorative lamp posts are located along its perimeter. The territory adjacent to the square is well arranged and planted to 900 young firs and other trees, which cover an area of 1.2 hectares. The structure will look incredibly impressive in the dark, when the huge flagpole is brightly illuminated by the crisscrossing beams of spotlights. From now onward, the square will be one of the most popular venues in the city to host various celebrations in honor of the national holidays. The new flagstaff in Balkanabat with the waving-in-the-wind National Flag on top of it is clearly visible many kilometers far away. It is now among the high-rise structures with the flying State Flag of Turkmenistan on the top of them. As is known, the highest of them – a 133-meter-high flagpole in the capital of our country – is erected in white-marble Ashgabat and included in the Guinness Book of Records in 2010.