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Flag of Azerbaijan
Use	National flag and ensign
Proportion	1:2
Adopted	September 24, 1918, with modifications in 1991
Design	A horizontal tricolor of blue, red and green

The flag of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan bayrağı) is the national flag of Azerbaijan. It consists of three equal horizontal bands colored blue, red, and green, with a white crescent and an eight-pointed star are centered in the red band. The blue band refers to the Turkic heritage, the red is for progress and Europeanisation^[1] and the green refers to Islam.^[2]

The official colours and size were adopted on February 5, 1991,^[3] since then the flag is referred to in the Constitution and is mentioned two times in the national anthem. The flag is used on land, as the civil, state and war flag, at sea, as the civil, state and naval ensign and naval jack.^[4] The specific shades of the national flag were laid out in a 2004 law as the following: blue - PMS 313 C, red - PMS 185 C, green - PMS 3405 C.^[5]

[edit] History

Azeri peacekeepers rolling up the flag as a symbol of their departure from Iraq at an appreciation ceremony in Camp Ripper, 2008.

The views of historians and researchers differ on the meaning of the crescent and star on the flag. According to historian Nasib Nasibli, Alibay Huseynzadeh, one of the ideologues of Azerbaijan’s independence, developed the combination based on colors used in 1895.^[6]

During the Soviet period Jahid Hilaloglu raised the tricolor over the Maiden Tower in 1956 showing his defiance towards the system.^[6] Hilaloglu was ultimately sentenced to four years of imprisonment and his supporter Chingiz Abdullayev was institutionalized.^[6] On May 28, 1952 during the Republic Day celebrations in Germany, Mammed Amin Rasulzade raised the tricolor and asked "who can be entrusted to take it [the flag] away to Azerbaijan.^[6] Gulmirza Bagirov ultimately brought it to Azerbaijan in secret in the 1970s. This flag was hung over his house in Maştağa on January 20, 1990.^[6]

In 2007 the largest local version of the flag (10x20 m at a 61.5 m high flagpole) was raised in front of the Nizami raion administrative building in Baku.^[7] In 2009 Azerbaijan's flag was temporarily hoisted both at the North^[8] and South Pole.^[9]