Flag of Chechnya

Chechen Republic flag since 2004

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, containing the national ornament, a design of four golden scroll shapes. The horizontal bars are in the proportions 4:1:3.

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

Historic flags

Chechen-Ingush ASSR flag in 1957-1978

From 1957 to 1978, the Soviet flag of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was based on the flag of the Russian SFSR with the addition of a blue horizontal bar on the hoist 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.

Post-Soviet era flags

Chechen Republic of Ichkeria flag since 1991

Separatist flag featuring the coat of arms

Chechen Republic of Ichkeria

Several flags have been used by the supporters of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. The most common of these is the green flag with the red and white stripes depicted on the right. Its proportions are approximately 3:5. The color scheme is green, white, red, white, green, with the upper two thirds of the flag in green and the remaining one third in white, red, white and green stripes of equal width. Another well known example is similar to this flag but has the country's coat of arms incorporated into the design. Each color is meant to sympbolize an aspect of the Chechen national character. Green is the color of Islam, red symbolizes the blood shed in the struggle for freedom and white represents the road to a bright future.^[1] These flags were mainly used by supporters of Dzhokhar Dudayev, Aslan Maskhadov and their successors. Apart from these several other designs have been used by different factions of the independentist movement, and even single sides used different flags at the same time.

Flag used by pro-Moscow Chechens until 2004

Loyalist opposition

The pro-Moscow opposition of Dudayev used a flag of similar design with the main difference being the inversion of the red and white stripes and their different width-ratio. Its proportions are reported to be 3:5 and it consists of 5 horizontal stripes: green, red, white, red and green, the width ratio of which is 4:1:1:1:1.^[2] It has not been used since it was replaced by the current flag of the Chechen Republic.

flag of the Wilayah Noxçiyçö

Wilayah Noxçiyçö-Içkeriya

Wilayah Noxçiyçö is the Chechenian province of the Caucasus Emirate, a self-proclaimed virtual state entity. Its flag based on Ichkerian flag, but with the Takbir ("Allah Akbar").

References

1. ^ Flags of the World: Independentist flag of Chechenia
2. ^ Flags of the World: Pro-Russian flag of Chechenia

External links

Chechnya portal

• Flags of the World: Chechenia