Last modified: 2007-07-28 by antónio martins
Keywords: peace | pacifism | compromise |
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The Cyprus flag is quite common
on the “Greek” side. You can see it hoisted in many places.
It is more frequent view than the
Greek flag. The “Greek” Cypriots
are quite proud in their flag.
Dov Gutterman, 28 May 1999
And yet it was deliberately designed to be a “neutral”
flag, in order to inspire the peace between the two
communities (greek and turkish
cypriots). The very same occured with the
Irish flag, where green
stands for the Irish, the orange for the protestants
and the white for peace among them — the very same flag
that was even prohibited
in Northern Ireland because it may offend one of
the conflicting parts! Other examples to hand are the
unofficial green-white-pink
flag of Newfoundland (similar symbolism as above)
and the Tatarian flag
with green for muslims / Tatars, red for Russians and
white (very thin stripe!) for peace.
António Martins, 29 May 1999
Yet another case of a “neutral” design, supposedly
peace inspiring, is the flag of
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
António Martins, 05 Dec 1999
The [previous] flag
of Bosnia and Herzegovina was already a compromise
design; that this specifically design neutral flag,
should receive a politcal charging which now makes it
unacceptable.
John Hall, 18 Dec 1997
Other cases are:
USA Grand Union Flag 1775-1777. This flag altered the British Red Ensign with six white pieces of cloth to create a field of 13 red/white stripes. By 1777 the presence of the Union Flag in the canton was deemed inappropriate.
Cambodia: The flag of UN blue with a white map and blue text of the name of the country was an interim flag that wasn’t appreciated much at the time (early 1990’s) but now is used by Cambodian Americans. Probably the reverse of the original question.
The very similar flags of Egypt/Libya/Syria was an international compromise in forming the Federation of Arab Republics in 1970. The federation is now disparate, with Libya choosing a monochromatic flag, often referred to as a tricolor of green, green, and green, or as a green field with a green canton, etc.
The 1928-1994 flag of South Africa was really a compromise between the British and the Dutch. They conveniently forgot the majority population which is now quite well represented in the government and in the flag.
Nick Artimovich, 18 Dec 1997
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