How and why the flag of Libya changed in different historical periods

The state symbols of Libya after the overthrow of the leader of the Jamahiriya Muammar Gaddafi has not changed. Obviously, the rebel groups and the PNC leaders are not up to this right now. It is necessary to manage with what has inherited from the contrite authoritarian regime.

The heraldry of this state arose in 1951, when the kingdom of Libya appeared on the world map. The coat of arms and the flag, which serve as the symbols of the country today, were approved in 1977, eight years after the military coup, also called the September revolution, as a result of which Gadhafi became the national leader. Many events passed between these two dates. For twenty-six years the flag of Libya has changed four times. The reasons were different.

Colonizers and flags

360 years in most of this Arab state was Tripolitania.

In 1911, Turkish ownership of this land, or rather, mostly desert, was completed. The country did not acquire freedom, but the colonizer was replaced, an Italian tricolor, green-white-red, with a royal cross on a red background in the center, was climbing over Tripoli. After the First World War, it seemed, Tripolitania still gained sovereignty. For five years, the former Italian colony attempted to obtain international recognition under the blue flag with a green palm tree and white star, but in 1923 the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who dreamed of creating a great empire, again sent troops here. The invaders acted cruelly, using barbarous methods of war, including poison gases, not to mention aerial bombs. It was the Italians, seeking to expand their influence in North Africa, annexed other Emirates to Tripolitania, covering almost the entire territory of modern Libya.

During the Second World War (1942), the Italian flag gave way to the British Union Jack, he swarmed over some of the land taken away from the Italian colonialists until 1949. At the same time, the province of Fezzan, ruled by France, had another flag, on which a white star and a crescent were depicted on a red background.

Obtaining independence

In 1951 Tripolitania united with Cyrenaica (which had the same flag, but black) and Fezzan, as a result, the Libyan kingdom was formed. The new monarchy needed a state symbol, such that it took into account the attributes of all three lands that were included in its composition, and it turned out exactly this way. Three bands, among which the middle (black) was twice as wide as the extreme (the upper one - red, the lower one - green), with the star and crescent in the center symbolizing the supremacy of Cyrenaica, the blood shed in the struggle, and the dominant religious denomination. It was the first flag of Libya as an independent state.

Flags under Gaddafi

The real sovereignty of the country reached only after Muammar Gaddafi came to power. In 1969, the symbol of the country adopted pan-Arab red-white-black colors. After joining the Federation of the Arab Republics (1972), an eagle of golden yellow color was added to the bands, clutching the scroll with the name of the interstate association in claws. This became the flag of Libya after 1972. In addition to it, the Syrian Arab Republic included Syria and Egypt.

The last flag

The traditional color of Tripolitania was green. The reason for the change of the flag in 1977 was politically motivated, it can only be understood when it returned to the distant year of 1951, when the country received independence from Great Britain at the request of the UN General Assembly. The state structure of the new subject of international law was defined as a federal constitutional monarchy, and its head was Sheikh Idris the First, it was with him that the first flag of Libya was adopted. The King's photo, surrounded by British officers and leaders of the Sensuites, testified to his desire to increase the importance of Cyrenaica, although the population of this province was less than a third of all citizens of the country. Such a policy aroused public discontent, so after the overthrow of the monarchy as a state, the flag of the Federation of the Arab Republics was adopted. In 1977, it ceased to exist.

The flag of Libya is unique, it is monochromatic-green. There are no other monochrome state symbols in the world.

While there is a civil war in the former Great Socialist People's Libyan Jamahiriya, it is difficult to guess what political and economic prospects this country has, and even more so, what will be its next flag. Its history is a lesson to other states ...