November 9 - State Flag Day in Azerbaijan

Posted on November 9, 2019


Blue represents Azerbaijan's Turkic heritage.
Red represents progress.
Green represents the religion of Islam.

This central Asian nation's flag is a tricolor with a little something extra in the center: a white crescent and 8-pointed star. The crescent moon plus star represent Islam, too.

Almost all other Muslim-majority flags have crescent moons and 5-pointed stars. This is true of the flags for Turkey, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Pakistan, Comoros, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Mauritania. 












(Singapore's flag also features a crescent moon and 5-pointed stars, although Islam is practiced by only about 14% of the population! And Malaysia's flag features a crescent moon and multi-pointed star that looks like the sun.) 



So, why an 8-pointed star for Azerbaijan?

Nobody seems to have a certain answer. Here are some theories:

  • There are 8 letters in Azerbaijan's name, in written Arabic: 

أذربيجان
  • An 8-pointed star is a very important design in Azeri carpets:

  • Azerbaijan's old flag used to be exactly like Turkey's, and so the different star was used to distinguish them.
  • Each point of the star represents one of the Turkic peoples of Azerbaijan. Except, by most counts, there are only seven groups of Turkic people. In order to achieve eight, we can split one group according to which -stan nation people live in:



1. Kazakhs 
2. Kyrgyz 
3. Azeris 
4. Ottomans 
5. Selijuks 
6. Turkomans 
7. Tatars 
8. Jagatais
















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