The fall of the Syrian regime on December 8 is, among other things, symbolized by the end of the portraits and statues of the Assad family which dotted cities and countryside. It is also the announced end of the two-star flag.
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Around ten flags represented the Syria since 1920, the year of proclamation of independence, evolving according to Syria’s alliances with different Arab countries. But only two of them have received all the attention since 2011.
Back to the origins
On December 8, 2024, the country regains the flag of the former Syrian Republic (1932-1958). The three horizontal bands of green, white and black represent the three pan-Arab colors: green symbolizes the early years of Islam under the Rashidun, while white refers to the Umayyad dynasty and black to the Abbasid caliphate which ruled from 750 AD BC until the middle of the 13th century. The three red stars represent the major cities of Damascus (southwest), Aleppo (northwest) and Deir Ezzor (east).
In Syria then under French mandate, this flag was raised for the first time in Aleppo in 1932. From 1936, the three regions are represented by a single star on the flag, while the other two symbolize the State of the Alawites. and the State of the Druze having joined Syria. It was officially adopted in 1936 and became the standard of the country upon its independence in 1946 and until 1958. It made a brief appearance again between 1961 and 1963 during the end of the United Arab Republic.
A flag symbol of the Baath party
The United Arab Republic was created in 1958, between Syria and Nasser’s Egypt. The standard with three horizontal bands, black, white and red, struck with two green stars, appears. It is inspired by the Egyptian flag: red symbolizes the blood of martyrs, white, peace and black the colonial past. These colors illustrate the first great Arab revolution, when Nasser overthrew the Egyptian monarchy in 1952. As for the two green stars, one represents Syria, the other Egypt.
In 1963, the Baath Party took power in Syria. The country then adopted a red-white-black flag identical to the Iraqi flag then in use, with three green stars symbolizing Egypt, Syria and Iraq.
Reintroduced in 1980, the bass flag of the Syrian Arab Republic takes the colors of that of the former United Arab Republic. Throughout the era of Assad father and son, it is this two-star flag that is flown. This flag is, in theory, still the official flag of Syria today.
It represents 80 years of Baathist rule. The Baath, “Socialist Party of Arab Resurrection”, was officially founded in Damascus on April 7, 1947. It initially wanted to combine socialism and Arab nationalism, it recognized the preponderant place of Islam while advocating a secular state for bring together all the components of an Arab nation divided along confessional lines. Until 2011, the old flag of independence, with three stars, was not forgotten. It appears during historical commemorations and on certain postal stamps.
But from the start of the Arab Spring and until the fall of the Assad regime thirteen years later, this flag was repressed in Syria. Defined by the regime as “ flag of colonialism », it is brandished in all demonstrations in Europe and around the world.
This banner was adopted in November 2011 by the Syrian National Council based in Istanbul as the official flag of the opposition. Barely two weeks after the fall of the Assad regime, this flag flies over numerous Syrian consulates and embassies, even in Moscow where the deposed president found refuge.
Also readThe risk of fragmentation hangs over post-Assad Syria
Other flags for around ten years
Since the start of the war in 2011, other pavilions have sprung up across the country. First of all the black standard of the jihadists of the Islamic State group, who governed an embryonic state encompassing several million people and guilty of multiple abuses in Iraq and Syria from 2014. Since the fall of Bashar el- Assad, fears of a strong return of this flag in the west of the country are increasing.
The al-Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, also had its flag, black with the shahada (profession of Muslim faith) calligraphed in white. The Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) at the head of the coalition which took power in Damascus, comes from this faction and its flag is white with a green band and a central circle decorated with the shahada written on a green background. Among the regional flags which also flourished, is that of Kurds of Syria, red, white, green and yellow, hoisted in the areas under their control.
Fears surrounding the HTS flag alongside the flag of the revolution
Mohammad al-Bashir, head of the transitional government, was photographed shortly after his appointment with two flags, that of the revolution and another white flag bearing the shahada inscribed in black, causing many fears on the social networks and a backpedaling of the new authorities who are now working to display only the three-star Syrian flag.
Thursday, December 19, hundreds of people demonstrated in central Damascus for democracy and women’s rights. “We want democracy, not a religious state”, “Syria, free and secular state”, chanted the demonstrators, men and women, gathered on the emblematic Umayyad Square. “No free nation without free women,” said one sign.
If the question of transition and future governance now arises in this fragmented country, it is the three stars of the flag born under the French mandate which should shine over post-Assad Syria.
Also readSyria: in the center of Damascus, demonstration for democracy and women’s rights