Flag of Libya

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Flag of Libya
Flag of Libya.svg

Vexillological symbol : National flag on land, trade and service flag at sea?
Aspect ratio: 1: 2
Officially accepted: First time:
December 24, 1951
In use again since:
February 27, 2011

The National Transitional Council in Benghazi , which has existed since February 27, 2011, uses the old flag of the kingdom as the flag of Libya , which was first introduced on December 24, 1951. The new national flag was set for the first time at the United Nations in New York on September 21, 2011. A new constitution that officially adopts the national flag is still missing.

Description and meaning

Historical provinces of Libya
Structure of the flag

In the constitution of October 7, 1951, the flag, which is used again today, was officially introduced as a national flag for the first time. The tricolor shows the colors of the traditional provinces of the country in a horizontal arrangement: red for Fessan , black with a crescent moon and a star for Cyrenaica and green for Tripolitania . Different meanings were assigned to the colors: red for the blood in the fight against Italian colonialism, green for prosperity and black for the royal family. The black stripe is twice as wide as the other two stripes. The aspect ratio is 1: 2.

history

Until 1977

Historic flag? Flag of King Idris I.

Until the individual parts of the country were united under the Italian colonial rulers, there were various flags in the different parts of the country. So had Cyrenaica a black flag with crescent and star, similar to the present-day Turkish flag . Sometimes she is also reported to have a white frame. It is possible that the black flag was used as early as 1919 when an emirate was founded under Italian sovereignty, but that was abolished in 1920. In 1947, Kyrenaica re-adopted the flag after Italy officially renounced its old colony. When Cyrenaica declared its independence in 1949, it carried the black flag with a crescent moon and a star as its national flag until it rose in the Kingdom of Libya on December 24, 1951.

The flag of the Kingdom of Libya was introduced with independence in 1951. In the constitution of October 7, 1951, it was laid down in Chapter 7, Article 1. It corresponded to the tricolor with a wide black stripe, crescent moon and star that is used again today. The flag of King Idris I was derived from the historical flag of Kyrenaika. She was black with a crescent moon and a star and wore a crown in her jack , crowned by a small crescent moon and a star.

After the coup of March 1, 1969, the Revolutionary Council under Colonel Gaddafi proclaimed the Arab Republic of Libya and introduced the new red, white and black striped national flag that same year. Except for the stars, this flag was identical to the flag of the United Arab Republic , which at that time consisted only of Egypt . It was also determined that if Libya were to be united with other Arab states, additional green stars were to be inserted in the central stripe. Through this decree, the pan-Arab colors were represented in the flag .

In 1971 Libya and Egypt decided to form a confederation. Both countries hoisted the planned common flag on January 1, 1972: red, white and black stripes with a golden Quraish falcon in the middle stripe. Black symbolized the dark times of colonialism and royalty , red the revolution and white the peaceful future.

In 1973 a union with Tunisia was planned , but the Arab Islamic Republic never came about. The planned flag was a pan-Arab tricolor in red, white and black with a red crescent moon and a star in a white stripe.

The single color flag of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

National flags of that time in Tripoli on Revolution Day

When Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat visited Israel in 1977 , Libya saw it as a betrayal of the common cause. One of the first measures was to stop flying the same flag as the alleged traitors. On November 19, 1977, on Gaddafi's advice, the Libyan Revolutionary Council set the new national flag: a pure green cloth. Libya thus became the only independent state to use a plain-colored cloth without any symbols as a national flag. Green is the traditional color of Islam , the state religion of Libya . The color also symbolized the Green Revolution of Muammar al-Gaddafi.

system green
RGB 0-149-48
Hexadecimal color definition # 009530

The flag of the Kingdom in the 2011 Civil War

In the civil war in Libya in 2011 , the insurgents used the flag of the old kingdom early on in demonstrations. For example, the national flag at the Libyan embassy in Vienna on February 25 and at other representations abroad was replaced by the staff as a sign of solidarity with the insurgents with the flag from 1951. In other embassies, such as in Berlin on February 21, demonstrators tried the same. On February 27, the rebels in Benghazi founded the National Transitional Council , which adopted the flag as a symbol. While the council stuck to the historical model, one saw again and again variations in which all stripes are the same width, sometimes the crescent moon and star were missing. Occasionally, demonstrators also used the pan-Arab flag from 1969.

More flags of Libya

The naval flag of Libya shows a white, unclear anchor on a light blue background and the national flag in the jack.

Web links

Commons : Flags of Libya  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. euronews, September 21, 2011, Fresh flag marks a fresh start for Libya at UN HQ
  2. Janathan S. Landay, Warren P. Strobel and Arwa Ibrahim: Violent repression of protests rocks Libya, Bahrain, Yemen . In: The Kansas City Star . February 18, 2011. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  3. ^ Mark Tran: Bahrain in crisis and Middle East protests - live blog . In: The Guardian . February 17, 2011. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  4. ORF: Zeit in Bild, February 25, 2011, broadcast from 7:30 p.m.  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / tvthek.orf.at  
  5. ^ BBC, February 21, 2011, Libyan flag pulled down from London embassy
  6. Website of the Transitional Council ( Memento of the original from March 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ntclibya.org
  7. Aljazeera, February 24, 2011, What's in a flag?
  8. NZZ photo of the demonstration in Benghasi from March 11, 2010  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Mostly equally wide stripes on the demonstrators; However, large flags based on historical models hang on buildings (not visible here).@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nzz.ch  
  9. Protesting students in Benghazi demand the no-fly zone - NZZ March 14th 2011  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nzz.ch  
  10. ^ Press TV: Libya celebrates navy's 49th anniversary , November 27, 2011 , accessed January 13, 2013