After the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, amid a campaign by opposition militias, Syrians raised a new flag to represent the overthrow of almost six decades of authoritarian rule by the Assad family.
The “independence” flag has become a symbol of unity for Syrian refugees around the world and has been carried by opposition supporters in Washington, Madrid, London and other countries.
Some protesters even stormed Syrian embassies abroad to raise the flag, including in Moscow, where Russian state media reported that Assad and his family had been granted asylum by the Putin government on humanitarian grounds.
Understand the meaning of the Syrian flags:
The flag of Assad’s Syria
The flag of the Syrian Arab Republic led by Bashar al-Assad is divided into three horizontal bands — known in vexillology, the study of flags, as “fesses”.
Red represents the blood spilled in the Syrian revolution. White symbolizes peace. Black represents the oppression of the Arabs.
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The green stars in the middle represent Syria and Egypt — the two founding states of the United Arab Republic, a short-lived state that comprised Egypt and Syria from 1958 until 1961, when an army coup reinstituted Syria as an independent nation. .
The father of ousted president Bashar al-Assad and Ba’ath party officials established this basic design as the official flag of Syria after the coup.
The opposition flag
Opposition groups chose a flag to distinguish themselves from the Assad government and his military state. The design revives the so-called “independence” flag that was used during Syria’s fight for independence from France.
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The red fess is replaced by a green one and three red stars represent the three main districts of Syria: Aleppo, Damascus and Deir el-Zor.
