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Pacifism flags

Last modified: 2003-04-05 by antonio martins
Keywords: peace | pacifism | compromise |
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See also:

Peace inspiring and confict compromise flags

The Cyprus flag is quite common on the “Greek” side. You can see it hoisted in many places. It is more frequent view than the Greek flag. The “Greek” Cypriots are quite proud in their flag.
Dov Gutterman, 28 May 1999

And yet it was deliberately designed to be a “neutral” flag, in order to inspire the peace between the two communities (greek and turkish cypriots). The very same occured with the Irish flag, where green stands for the Irish, the orange for the protestants and the white for peace among them — the very same flag that was even prohibited in Northern Ireland because it may offend one of the conflicting parts! Other examples to hand are the unofficial green-white-pink flag of Newfoundland (similar symbolism as above) and the Tatarian flag with green for muslims / Tatars, red for Russians and white (very thin stripe!) for peace.
António Martins, 29 May 1999

Yet another case of a “neutral” design, supposedly peace inspiring, is the flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
António Martins, 05 Dec 1999

The [previous] flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina was already a compromise design; that this specifically design neutral flag, should receive a politcal charging which now makes it unacceptable.
John Hall, 18 Dec 1997

Other cases are:

USA Grand Union Flag 1775-1777. This flag altered the British Red Ensign with six white pieces of cloth to create a field of 13 red/white stripes. By 1777 the presence of the Union Flag in the canton was deemed inappropriate.

Cambodia: The flag of UN blue with a white map and blue text of the name of the country was an interim flag that wasn't appreciated much at the time (early 1990's) but now is used by Cambodian Americans. Probably the reverse of the original question.

The very similar flags of Egypt/Libya/Syria was an international compromise in forming the Federation of Arab Republics in 1970. The federation is now disparate, with Libya choosing a monochromatic flag, often referred to as a tricolor of green, green, and green, or as a green field with a green canton, etc.

The 1928-1994 flag of South Africa was really a compromise between the British and the Dutch. They conveniently forgot the majority population which is now quite well represented in the government and in the flag.

Nick Artimovich, 18 Dec 1997