Greece under Ottoman rule

Last modified: 2002-05-31 by ivan sache
Keywords: ottoman | civil ensign | cross (white) | smyrna |
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by Ivan Sache

• Greek merchant ensign
• Smyrna variant of the civil ensign
• Souda Bay

See also:

• Greece
• Greece: Historical flags
• Ottoman Empire

Greek merchant ensign

There were only three flags in the Ottoman Empire that were official which were so called national flags: the red with crescent and star as the national flag, the red flag without devices as merchant flag, and a special merchant flag for those who had done the journey to Mecca, a red flag with a green central stripe.
That there might have been regulations on flags in Turkish possessions is the fact that Greek ships had to fly a red flag with a blue central stripe.

Ralf Stetler, 26 June 1999

This flag is shown in Colton's Delineation of Flags of All Nations (1862) (colour plate reproduced in Znamierowski [zna99]) and captioned: " #141. Ottoman Greek".

Ivan Sache, 10 March 2001

Smyrna variant of the civil ensign

by Ivan Sache

A variant used in Smyrna is known: five stripes alternatively red and blue.

Source: Hellenic flags. Insignia-Emblems. [kok97]

Pascal Vagnat, 11 January 1999

Souda Bay

The following information comes from exhibits in the Historical Museum in Iraklion (Heraklion), and the Cretan Naval Museum in Hania (Chania).

A 16th or 17th century flag was found on an island in Souda Bay: a blue field with a white cross (the arms of the cross are one-third the width of the flag), with a green and brown laurel wreath in the middle of the cross.

Bruce Tindall, 20 May 1996