Last modified: 2002-10-12 by ivan sache
Keywords: law | sun: 16 rays | coat of arms | eagle: double-headed (yellow) | proposal |
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For the record, here is the relevant bit of the interim agreement
between Greece and Macedonia in which Macedonia agrees to give up its
flag:
Article 7, Paragraph 2.
Upon entry into force of this Interim Accord, the Party of the
Second Part [Macedonia] shall cease to use in any way the symbol in
all its forms displayed on its national flag prior to such entry into
force.
Josh Fruhlinger, 17 September 1995
Two options for a new flag
Today's Nova Makedonija writes that the Republic of
Macedonia will have a new national flag as soon as October 5, when
the parlament session on the issue is to take place. The paper states
two options for the flag, both having red color as a background and a
golden-yellow symbol as a central figure. The first solution for the
symbol would be a rising or setting half-sun, while the second will
be a sun with rays going horizontally, vertically or diagonally
across the flag.
The paper also says that parties included in Parliament are already
discussing the possible look of the new flag.
Members of Parliament to suggest a new flag?
Sources close to the Macedonian Parliament presidency say that
next Thursday or Friday, a procedure is to begin at Parliament to
adopt a new flag. Along with the flag, the Parlament will discuss
about the already forgotten law on a national coat-of-arms.
The dynamics of activities at the session has not yet been precisely
determined, but the procedure will be designed so that it is
completed before the 30-day deadline, defined in last week's
agreement Macedonia signed with Greece
in New York.
As days are numbered, the 16-sun-rays flag
that represented Macedonia since August 1992 will be replaced in a
short procedure. Meaning, the proposal to pass a new law on the flag,
as a first stage, will be presented at the same time with the
definite version of the suggested law, which is a third stage. In
this way, the Parliament will skip over the usual practice to debate
over a draft law. Thus shortened, the procedure will enable the
Parliament to get the entire matter completed in a single day. Under
the current procedural regulations, however, a parlament session
cannot be scheduled before 15 days after the procedure has been
started.
As far as the procedure goes, there are announcements that the
Government will not be the one to come up with a suggested solution,
but the proposal is to come from a group of parliamentarians. The
intention is to have a group of members of parlament including
elements from all the parlamentary groups. The suggestion will first
of all be discussed by the Constitutional Commission and will then be
proceeded to the Parliament. Another option is to have the parlament
signatories proposing a solution determined by the Constitutional
Commission.
The basis for deciding on the new flag, sources inform, will be
the suggestions that were chosen during the open competition three
years ago, when independent national symbols were designed for the
first time. The following six ideas were then bought out: MAKO
by Dimko Krstevski, Phoenix 92 by Kostadin Tancev, 5222
by Branko Kostovski, A-OPULSI 68 by Ilija Spasovski,
Makedonija 992 by Aco Mitrevski and 08002 by Milivoj
Gruevski.
Over 100 ideas entered the competition in 1992, with the red and
golden-yellow colors as predominating features. The most frequently
suggested symbol was the sun, drawn in all kinds of stylized shapes.
Upon a proposal of the jury, the Constitutional Commission members
voted by a majority of votes in favor of the suggested red flag with
a many-rayed sun in the middle. It is these two elements that have
led many spectators to believe the new flag will also have red color
as a basic one and again a golden sun as a center symbol, only this
time in quite a different shape than the current one. Some even point
out to three suggestions as the most serious candidates.
The opening of the procedure for replacement of the national flag
will also be used to decide on a national
coat-of-arms. The previous parliament
failed to provide the required 80 votes in favor to adopt this
symbol. The matter then stopped at an argument between the
Constitutional Commission and the
VMRO-DPMNE parliamentarian group. The
Commission's suggestion was to have a golden many-rayed sun in the
middle (an application of it's suggestion for the flag), whereas the
VMRO-DPMNE deputies insisted on a lion as a central figure! Neither
suggestion was given the necessary two-thirds majority of votes and
the issue was dropped and left for better times in the future.
It should be pointed out here, however, that the SDSM member of
parlament Nikola Popovski did initiate a procedure on the
coat-of-arms as early as last spring. His idea was to keep the old
coat-of-arms but without the five-pointed star. Some say that his
suggestion will be in the race along with the most successful ideas
of the 1992 open competition. Unofficial sources even say that the
new flag symbol will also appear on the national coat-of-arms.
New flag - golden sun on red base
As A1 TV informs, calling on its sources, the new symbol on the
Macedonian flag most probably will be a sun with eight sunrays on a
red base. Meantime, there are two possible variants for the flag, the
difference being the length of the sunrays. Proposers of the new
symbol are a group of delegates of the election coalition Alliance
for Macedonia and their number may be over 80
parliamentarians.
Source: MIC reports, 20 September 1995 (searchable database), quoted by Andrej Brodnik, 21 September 1995
My bet is on the new flag being a gold lion rampant surmounted with a crown on a red field - this imagery was very much in evidence as a sort of prototype national emblem when I visited Macedonia in 1989.
Stuart Notholt, 15 September 1995
by
António Martins (reconstruction)
Flagmaster # 080 (1995) [flm] has an article concerning the flag of Macedonia, and a design suggested by the Flag Institute. It appears to be horizontally divided, red over blue, surmounted overall by a gold or white spread-wing double-headed eagle and three sixpointed stars arrainged in the spaces between the wings and necks and between the two necks. The report also states that a group of parliamentarians will form a committe to look over entries submitted some three years ago.
Bruce Ward, 1 March 1996
The image is somewhat more ornamented then the heraldically simplified Albanian eagle. If I remember correctly, the flag described there was not blue, but black, but my memory might deceiving me.
Zeljko Heimer, 20 February 1998
by
António Martins
In the book Flaggen und Wappen der Welt, by Karl-Heinz
Hesmer [hes92], I found a quite
unusual flag for Macedonia, which I never saw discussed here. I
suppose that it was one of several proposals between the "Vergina
Star" flag and the current flag, or else it's something completely
different.
It is approximatively a 3:5 red and black unequally stripped flag
with a red square canton covering the three upper stripes charged
with a twenty pointed yellow device -- that could be a Vergina star
also.
António Martins, 19 February 1999
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