Azerbaijan

From VexiWiki

Flag of Azerbaijan
Adopted	February 5, 1991 [1]
Designed by	Əli bəy Hüseynzadə[2]
Proportions	1:2

The flag of Azerbaijan is an equal horizontal tricolour of blue, red, and green, with a small white eight-pointed star and crescent in the centre of the flag, pointed towards the fly.

[edit] Symbolism

The three colours symbolise the three key political principles of the party Müsavat (which was ruling in Azerbaijan in 1918-1920):

• Blue — Turkisation (Pan-Turkism)
• Red — Modernisation
• Green — Islamisation^[3]

The crescent is a common element of the flags among the nations of Turkic/Turkish heritage.

The 8-pointed star probably symbolises the eight letters of which the word "Azerbaijan" consists (in the old orthography). Also, it's considered one of the symbols of Shia Islam (a denomination of Islam constituting the majority of the population in Azerbaijan).^[4]

[edit] History

According to the Treaty of Gulistan (1813) Persia acknowledged the loss of the territory of Azerbaijan to the Russian Empire.

At the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, the area became part of the short-lived state Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (February-May 1918), and an independent republic was proclaimed in Ganja on May 28, 1918. The first flag was red with a crescent, reminding the flag of Turkey, but later Əli bəy Hüseynzadə proposed a tricolour featuring the same elements as the current flag of Azerbaijan.

The Red (Soviet) Army invaded Azerbaijan on April 28, 1920, and on the same say Azerbaijan was proclaimed a Soviet Socialist Republic.

In March 1922 Azerbaijan was incorporated into the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic along with Armenia and Georgia. Since December 30, 1920, Transcaucasia became one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union.

The Transcaucasian SFSR was dissolved in 1936 and its three regions became separate republics within the Soviet Union. According to the common pattern the Azerbaijan Republic adopted a red flag with the hammer and sickle the abreviation "AzSSR" in canton. In 1940 a Cyrillic alphabet was adopted for the Azerbaijani language, and the abbreviation was changed to "АзССР".

In the early 1950s new pattern of flags for the Soviet Republics was introduced, and the Azerbaijan SSR adopted its new flag in 1952.

Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union on August 30, 1991. The new flag closely resembled the flag of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.

[edit] References

1. ↑ azerbaijan flag and description at WorldAtlas.Com
2. ↑ Azərbaycan Respublikasının Dövlət Bayrağı at Azerbaijani Wikipedia
3. ↑ Our Flags at KavkazWeb.net
4. ↑ What the crescent and the star stand for at the flag of Azerbaijan at the site of the Azeri Press Agency

Asia

Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Cambodia China Cyprus Georgia India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Myanmar Nepal North Korea Oman Pakistan Philippines Qatar Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore South Korea Sri Lanka Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Thailand Timor-Leste Turkey Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen

Europe

Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic Cyprus Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Vatican City