National Flag Day in Azerbaijan
National Flag Day is being celebrated in Azerbaijan today. The current tri-color national flag was established on 9 November 1918 as part of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.
Every schoolchild in Azerbaijan knows what the colors of the flag mean: light blue – the Turkic ethnos (the Azerbaijani people belong to the Turkic group), red – democratic values, green – Islamic culture.
The current flag was not the first Azerbaijani flag however. Many changes took place before and after 1918.
At first, the founders of the ADR used the Turkish flag as its basis, changing the five-pointed star to an eight-pointed star. This variant only lasted five months before the current one was adopted on 9 November.
In 1920, after the 11th Red Army captured Baku, Azerbaijan was declared a Soviet Republic. In 1921, the flag was changed to Red with the letters A.S.S.R. (back then the Arabic alphabet was used) on a green background.
In 1937, the inscription was translated and moved.
In 1952, the flag was changed again, now using the Soviet flag as its basis with a sickle and hammer.
Finally, after the collapse of the Soviet union on 5 February 1991, independent Azerbaijan adopted the tri-color flag as it was designed by the founding fathers of the First Republic.
