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Flag of Crimea

Use	National flag and ensign.
Proportion	1:2
Adopted	April 21, 1999
Design	A blue–white–red tricolor

The flag of Crimea (Ukrainian: Прапор АР Крим) is the official flag of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine. It has been in use since 1992 and was officially adopted on April 21, 1999.^[1]

The flag is a horizontal blue–white–red tricolor. The blue stripe is located at the top edge and is 1/6 of the flag's width. The white stripe is the largest of the three and is 2/3 of the flag's width, and the red stripe is located at the bottom edge and is 1/6 of the flag's width.

When flown vertically, the flag's blue stripe should be at the left, the white field in the center, and the red stripe on the right. The flag's length is twice its width.^[2]

Contents 1 History 2 Other flags 2.1 Crimean Tatars 2.2 Crimean People's Republic (1918) 2.3 Crimean government under General Sulkievich (1918) 2.4 Soviet Union 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many designs were used by separatists from Crimea.^[3] The most commonly used design in public was a white flag with a blue outline map of Crimea, reminiscent of the Flag of Cyprus. However, many Verkhovna Rada of Crimea members had supported the version of a white flag with seven rainbow colors at the top.^[3] Crimea proclaimed self-government on May 5, 1992,^[4] but no official flag was chosen.

On June 5, 1992, five proposals were submited to the Crimean Parliament:

1. Blue–white–blue tricolor with large white space and narrow blue strips at the top and bottom edges of the flag.
2. White flag with seven rainbow colors at the top.
3. White over light blue field.
4. Yellow–green–blue tricolor with a same size red vertical stripe at the hoist.
5. The current blue–white–red design with the coat of arms in the center.

Proposal 5, designed by V. Trusov and A. Malgin, was selected to be the flag of Crimea.^[3] The coat of arms of G. Jefetov and V. Jagunov was recommended for display on the flag. The final design for the flag was submitted in the second session of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea on September 24, 1992. The flag was only officially adopted on April 21, 1999.

The natives of Crimea, the Crimean Tatars, use their own traditional flags. A light blue flag with a golden tamgha was used as the state and civil flag, the green colored flag was used for religious purposes, and the red colored flag was used as the Tatar's military flag.^[5] Currently, only the light blue flag is used, which is now an ethnic flag of the Crimean Tatars. The golden colored tamgha was used in the upper left corner of the flag and sometimes in the center.

The religious flag of the Crimean Tatars is green colored with a golden tamgha in the top left corner of the flag. It was used by the Republic of Crimea in 1917-1918, officially adopted in November of 1917, and later abolished in January of 1918.^[5]

State and civil flag of the Crimean Tatars

Military flag of the Crimean Tatars, 1917-1918

Religious flag of the Crimean Tatars, 1917-1918

When Crimean Tatars declared their independence from the Russian Empire at the end of 1917, they were seen displaying a light blue and gold tricolor flag with the golden stripe in the center.^[5] The Crimean Tatars' independence was short-lived, and when Russia took control of Crimea in the beginning of 1918, the flag was abolished.^[5]

The short-lived Crimean government (Russian: Крымское краевое правительство), led by General Suleyman Sulkievich (a Lithuanian Tatar by origin), existed during the German occupation of Crimea (June 25–November 15, 1918), in which the Crimean government proclaimed a self-rule. Sulkievich's government adopted a flag which seemed to be a compromise between Crimean Tatars and the Russians. It was a traditional Crimean Tatar blue-colored banner, but it had the coat of arms of the Russian Empire's Taurida Governorate instead of the Crimean Tatar tamgha.

When the Crimean ASSR was established as part of the Russian SFSR on October 18, 1921, it received its own flag. The flag was red, and spelled in golden letters were the Cyrillic letters КрССР and the Arabic alphabet ق س ش ج. The lettering on the flag was changed to include КрАССР and QrMSŞÇ in the Uniform Turkic Alphabet in 1929 in order to indicate Crimea as an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The flag was amended yet again in 1938 with the lettering Cyrillic РСФСР at the top (for Russian SFSR) and КрАССР at the bottom. After Crimea was transformed into the Crimean Oblast (region) on June 30, 1945, its flag was abolished.^[6]

Flag of the Crimean ASSR, 1921

Flag of the Crimean ASSR, 1929

Flag of the Crimean ASSR, 1938

• Flag of Ukraine
• List of flags of Ukraine
• Coat of arms of Crimea

• Verkhovna Rada of Crimea — "On the Flag of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea"
• fotw.net — Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Ukraine)
• Ukrainian heraldy — Flag of Crimea

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