Syria Flag

The national flag of the Syrian Arab Republic is a horizontal tricolor of red, white, and black bands, with two green, five-pointed stars centered on the white band. This design is a direct descendant of the flag of the United Arab Republic (UAR), a political union between Syria and Egypt from 1958 to 1961. The flag's colors are Pan-Arab colors, which carry deep historical and cultural significance across the Arab world, symbolizing shared heritage and common aspirations.

Adopted in its current form in 1980, the flag is used by the Syrian government and its diplomatic missions worldwide. The specific arrangement of two stars distinguishes it from other Arab national flags that use similar color schemes, creating a unique national identifier. Its simple yet symbolic design makes it easily recognizable and reproducible for official and public use.

The red, white, black, and green are the Pan-Arab colors. Red symbolizes the blood of martyrs shed for freedom and the Hashemite dynasty. White represents a bright future and the Umayyad Caliphate, a period of great Arab civilization. Black stands for the oppression that has been overcome and the Abbasid Caliphate. Green, the color of the stars, is associated with the Fatimid Caliphate and represents fertility, prosperity, and Islam.

The two green five-pointed stars in the center of the white band originally symbolized the two member states of the United Arab Republic: Egypt and Syria. Following the dissolution of the UAR, Syria retained the two-star flag, and its meaning is now commonly understood to represent Syria itself, sometimes interpreted as Syria and Egypt, or the unity of the Syrian people.

The current flag's origins trace back to 1958 with the formation of the United Arab Republic. The UAR flag, designed with two green stars, was adopted to represent the union. After Syria left the union in 1961, it readopted its previous independence flag (green-white-black with three red stars). The two-star flag was reinstated on March 29, 1980, by the government of Hafez al-Assad, replacing the three-star flag of the Federation of Arab Republics.

Since the start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, the flag has become a point of contention. The opposition Syrian National Coalition and the Syrian Interim Government use a different flag: the independence flag (green-white-black tricolor with three red stars), which was Syria's first republican flag after French mandate rule. This has led to two flags being used to represent different factions within the country.