Flag of Azerbaijan

The national flag of Azerbaijan has three horizontal stripes: blue, red and green. Blue symbolizes the Turkic people, red stands for a modern society and the development of democracy, and green is a symbol of belonging to the Islamic civilization. The flag has an eight-pointed star with a white crescent in the middle of a red stripe. The width of the flag is half its length. The flag as we know it today first appeared in 1918.

The meaning of the flag of Azerbaijan

For the first time, the idea of a tricolor flag was put forward by one of the ideologists of Azerbaijan's independence, Ali Bey Huseynzade: three horizontal stripes of equal width with a white eight-pointed star and a crescent moon:

• The upper blue stripe indicates the Turkic origin of the Azerbaijani people. In ancient times, countless ancient monuments were built in the territories inhabited by Turkic-speaking peoples, most of them blue. That is why the blue color in the flag of Azerbaijan symbolizes the Turkic people and pays tribute to them;
• the middle red. After the French Bourgeois Revolution in the late 1800s, Europe saw significant progress in the development of capitalism. At this time, the proletariat was struggling against the capitalist system. The red color became a symbol of Europe at that time;
• the lower green color means belonging to the Islamic civilization, the Islamic religion;
• in the middle of the red stripe is a white eight-pointed star, and to the left of it is a crescent moon.

When the flag of Azerbaijan first appeared in the form of a tricolor and an eight-pointed star with a crescent moon, no explanation was given for these symbols. Therefore, there are different opinions about the meaning of the crescent moon and the eight-pointed star.
The crescent moon was once the coat of arms of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. After the city was captured by the Turks in 1453, this emblem was adopted by the Ottoman Empire as a symbol of the Islamic religion and passed on to other nations that profess this religion. The crescent on the flag is a symbol of the Turkish people. As for the meaning of the eight-pointed star, it is related to the spelling of the word "Azerbaijan" in the old alphabet. Thus, in the old alphabet, the word "Azerbaijan" is written with eight letters.
In history, the meaning of the eight-pointed star is explained as follows: Turkism, Islamism, modernity, statehood, democracy, equality, Azerbaijanism and civilization.

History of the flag of Azerbaijan

On November 9, 1918, it was decided to use the tricolor flag as the national flag. However, after the fall of the People's Republic in 1920 and the establishment of Soviet rule, this flag was abolished.

On November 17, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic resumed the use of this flag and appealed to the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR to recognize the tricolor symbols as the official state symbol of Azerbaijan. As a result, on February 5, 1991, this request was considered and a decision was made to use the tricolor flag as the official state symbol of Azerbaijan.