Azerbaijan: Historical flags, 1917-1918

Last modified: 2002-06-14 by ivan sache
Keywords: azerbaijan | caucasus | crescents: 45 (white) | star: 8 points (white) | stars: 45 (white) | baku | musavat | dictatorship of central caspian |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors

by Ivan Sache

• First national flag of Azerbaijan (1917-1920)
• Federalist flag (1917)
• Musavat flag (1917)
• Baku Soviet Commune flag (1918)
• Dictatorship of Central Caspian flag (1918)

See also:

• Azerbaijan main page

First national flag of Azerbaijan

Znamierowski [zna00] shows as the first national flag of Azerbaijan a 2:3 flag, with the crescent and star shifted to the hoist instead of centered. He says that the main elements of the current flag were inspired by the 1917-20 one, implicitely stating that there are some differences between both flags.

Ivan Sache, 12 March 2001

Here I do not trust Znamierowski's book. Flag Bulletin [tfb] VIII:3, Summer 1969 was about "Flags of non-Russian peoples under Soviet rule" by Prof. W. Trembicky gives slightly different information.: the crescent overlapped into the upper and lower stripe.

Ralf Stelter, 12 March 2001

Federalist flag (1917)

by Jaume Ollé

In 1917 the Federalist Party in Azerbaijan led the people's struggle for autonomy. The flag of the federalist movement was a horizontal triband of white, red and green (the two last colors reversed of the Bulgarian colors).

Jaume Ollé, 02 November 1996

Musavat flag (1917)

by Jaume Ollé

The Musavat Party adopted at first a light blue flag covered by 45 crescents and stars (the crescent pointed toward the hoist), in seven lines of 6,7,6,7,6,7,6 white crescent and stars but shortly adopted a new flag, blue, red and green horizontal with a white crescent and star in the center, that was similar to the first national flag.

Jaume Ollé, 02 November 1996

Baku Soviet Commune flag (1918)

by Jaume Ollé

The Soviets proclaimed in Baku (8 May 1918) a short lived Baku Commune. The flag of the Commune was red with a large inscription in yellow.

Jaume Ollé, 2 November 1996

Dictatorship of Central Caspian flag (1918)

by Jaume Ollé

The commune was defeated, but a few weeks later, (14 August 1918) the unionists and other radicals proclaimed a State named "Dictatorship of Central Caspian" (Diktatura Tzentrokaspia) and adopted a light blue flag with a central horizontal red stripe. This state was suppressed after a few weeks, too.

Jaume Ollé, 2 November 1996