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What does the crescent and eight-pointed star on the national flag of Azerbaijan stand for? â€“ JOURNALISTâ€™S INVESTIGATION

What does the crescent and eight-pointed star on the national flag of Azerbaijan stand for? â€“ <font color=red>JOURNALISTâ€™S INVESTIGATION </font>

07 November 2008 14:11 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Kamala Guliyevaâ€“APA. November 9 is a day of declaration Azerbaijanâ€™s tricolor as a national flag. Ali Bey Huseynzadeh, one of the ideologists of Azerbaijanâ€™s independence, brought idea of tricolor flag to the agenda for the first time. Azerbaijan Democratic Republicâ€™s flag during the Ganja government was red like Turkeyâ€™s flag. The government of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic decided to raise the tricolor national flag on November 9, 1918. The flag was removed after the collapse of the Democratic republic and establishing the Soviet power in Azerbaijan on April 28, 1920.

Flag in the period of USSR â€¦

Although there were certain facts related to the tricolor flag during the Soviet time. Jahid Hilaloglu raised the tricolor over the Maiden Tower in 1956 showing hatred toward the system he lived. Hilaloglu was sentenced for 4 years of imprisonment for this action and his supporter Chingiz Abdullayev was sent to the nut hospital.
On May 28, 1952 during the Republic Day celebrated by the Azerbaijani emigrants in Germany, M. A. Rasulzadeh raised the tricolor flag and asked who can be entrusted to take it away to Azerbaijan. Gulmirza Bagirov took the flag and brought it secretly to Homeland in 1970s. This flag was hanged over his house in Mashtaga on January 20, 1990.

Flag in the period of independenceâ€¦

Rasulzadehâ€™s famous phrase â€œOnce rising flag never fallsâ€ was approved during the independence movement in Azerbaijan. The flag, which was raised during the protests against USSR Empire, received its first legal status in 1990. On November 17, 1990 Supreme Majlis (Parliament) of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic passed decision to declare the tricolor as a national flag of the Autonomous Republic. The Supreme Majlis of Nakhchivan sent petition to the Azerbaijan SSR Supreme Council demanding to recognize the tricolor as a national flag of Azerbaijan. On February 5, 1991 the Supreme Council reviewed the petition and adopted the law on the National Flag of Azerbaijan Republic.
President Ilham Aliyev issued an order on November 17, 2007 to establish the National Flag Square in Baku. The process of square construction is completed now.

The state flag of Azerbaijan Republic consists of three equal horizontal bands, from top: blue, red, and green; a white crescent and an eight-pointed star are centered in the red band. The blue band is the colour of the Turks. The green is for Islam and red is for progress and Europeanization. Proportion of the flag is 1:2.

What does the crescent and eight-pointed star on our flag stand for?

There exist various views on the meaning of the crescent and eight-pointed star on the flag. The views of scientists and researchers differ in this issue. Jabi Bahramov, deputy director of History Institute of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences told APA that the crescent was the symbol of Turkic peoples. As regards the eight-pointed star Bahramov said it was connected with the spelling of the word â€œAzerbaijanâ€ in the ancient alphabet. The word â€œAzerbaijanâ€ is spelled with eight letters in ancient alphabet.

Historian Nasib Nasibli told APA that when the tricolor flag was adopted as the state flag by Azerbaijan Peopleâ€™s Republic in 1918, the meanings of the colours were explained, but the meanings of the crescent and eight-pointed star were not shown.
â€œFor the first time Ali bay Huseynzadeh gave explanation of the three colours in 1895. Crescent has meant the symbol of Islam in a number of Muslim states since the Middle Ages. The crescent and eight-pointed star together means the symbol of happiness,â€ he said.
Nasib Nasibli said there were various views on the eight-pointed star.
â€œThe eight-pointed star means â€œeight doors of paradiseâ€. 8 is mostly connected with Shiism. The majority of Azerbaijanâ€™s population was Shiites at that time. There was a seven-pointed star on the flag of Ottoman Empire.

To him, it is difficult to say that founders of the Republic made eight-pointed star in the flag for this idea.
â€œThis is one of the suppositions. Five-pointed star stands for Christianity, six-pointed star Juduaism, seven-pointed star Sunniism, eight-pointed star Shiism, nine-pointed star Bahaism. I have not faced concrete explanation on meaning of eight-pointed star. I am familiar with fact that the moon and star is a symbol of happiness,â€ he said.
Scientist Jamil Hasanli stated that the moon and star belongs to Turkish symbols.
â€œThere is not unique opinion toward the issue. According to ancient Turkish mythology, number of stars plays a role in fortune of nations. Eight-pointed star also means happy event in the fortune of the nation,â€ he said. To him, meaning of three colors was shown when the flag was adopted during the period of Democratic Republic, but there is not any explanation on the moon and star.
ANAS respondent Akif Mammadli told APA that the half-moon comes from Caucasusian Albania. The moon was a source of belief of people in Caucasian Albania. Priests of moon temple were sacred people after the ruler in Albania. Akif Mammadli explained the eight-pointed star like so:
â€œRasulzadeh took eight principles into account during determination of principles of the state. These are: Turkism, Islamism, modernism, statehood, democratism, equality, Azerbaijanism, culture,â€ he said.