Flag of Chechnya

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The flag of Chechnya is a rectangle with sides in the ratio 2:3, the same ratio as the flag of the Russian Federation. The flag is composed of three horizontal bars of, from top to bottom: green, representing Islam; white; and red; superimposed on them is a narrow vertical white band at the hoist side, containing the national ornament, a design of four golden scroll shapes.

This flag, introduced in 2004, is primarily used by the government of Chechnya, while the previous flags are commonly used by opposition forces.

[edit] Historic flags

From 1957 to 1978, the Soviet flag of Chechen-Ingush ASSR was based on the flag of Russian SFSR with the addition of a blue horizontal bar on the right side and the abbreviated name of the republic (НГӀАССР in Chechen and Ingush, and ЧИАССР in Russian).

In 1978, these abbreviated names were replaced with the full versions: ЧЕЧЕНО-ИНГУШСКАЯ АССР in Russian, НОХЧ-ГӀАЛГӀАЙН АССР in Chechen, and НОХЧ-ГӀАЛӀАЙ АССР in Ingush.

This flag was used by the supporters of independent Chechnya. From 1990, no single national flag existed. There is an armed conflict in the republic, with several flags used by the different sides, and even single sides used different flags at the same time.

Dzhokhar Dudayev and Aslan Maskhadov used the flag of Ichkeria. This flag is still used by the supporters of independence as the only flag.

The former flag of the Chechen Republic is a rectangle with sides in the ratio 5:3. It consists of 5 horizontal stripes: green, red, white, red, and green, the width ratio of which is 4:1:1:1:1.