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Syria

Al-Suriyya, Syrian Arab Republic, Al-Jumhuriyya al-'Arabiyya as-Suriyya

by Zeljko Heimer

See also:

Meaning of the Colours

(See also Pan-Arab Colours for a historical explanation of the colours)

Red symbolizes the struggle and sacrifice for freedom; white signifies peace; and black stands for the dark colonial past. Source: Crampton 1985.

Jarig Bakker, 21 July 1999

Presidential Flag

The presidental flag of Syria is a 1:1 version of the state flag. Source: Pedersen 1973.

Marcus Wendel, 15 September 1999

Syrian flag variants and Ba'ath Party flag

I was on a trip to Syria and Jordan recently, and I want to report here on the vex-related observations there. The national flag of Syria, as we know it (for example from FOTW site), is shown in a lot of different variants in Syria. There are mainly four variables in this flag, in which individual flags can differ from others.

First variable is proportion: this should be 2:3, but you can see 1:2 as well:

by Marcus Schmöger
Second variable is orientation of stars: they can point upwards (as in the FOTW picture), downwards, to the hoist or to the fly:

by Marcus Schmöger

by Marcus Schmöger

by Marcus Schmöger
Third variable is size of stars: sometimes they have only the size of a third or a fifth of a stripe width:

by Marcus Schmöger

by Marcus Schmöger
Fourth variable is location of stars: in the FOTW picture they are spaced one third of the flag length from each other, but you can see them spaced a half of the flag length from each other as well:

by Marcus Schmöger
Furthermore I also saw flags without stars:

by Marcus Schmöger
Besides the normal horizontal usage of the flag you can see it vertical as well, be it painted on the wall or hanging on a building. The vertical examples are usually quite long (proportions 3:1 up to 8:1):
(Click on the flag to see it full size)
by Marcus Schmöger
Besides the national flag there is almost always another flag flying or hanging: The flag of the ruling Ba'ath Party, which is essentially the same as the Palestine flag:

by Marcus Schmöger

There are quite a lot of flags in Syria: not only on official buildings you always find the national flag and mostly the Ba'ath Party flag, but also on private buildings. In the Suqs there are lines with many little flags, often alternating the National flag and the Baath Party flag. However, there are certainly some regional differences: In Damascus you see a lot of flags, also in the Suq; in the second-largest city, Aleppo, there are no flags in the Suq, but there are islamic writings (for example the Shahada, as in the Saudi flag) hanging from the lines just as the little flags in the Damascus Suq; in Homs you can see the little triangular flags; in the parts along the Euphrat, for example near Der-ez-Zor, I saw some national flags without stars. However, there seem to be no regional flags or city flags.

Marcus Schmöger, 1 May 1997

Does the Ba'ath party in Iraq or other states use this same flag? Since I seem to recall that this was originally a pan-Arab movement, it would not surprise me.

Josh Fruhlinger, 1 May 1997

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the variant of the Syrian national flag without stars [sy-var8.gif] the flag of Yemen? %=)

David Kendall, 2 May 1997