Azernews.Az

By Seymur Aliyev

An event dedicated to Azerbaijan's flag was held in the capital Baku on Friday as the nation celebrated the National Flag Day, to reward schoolkids who took part in an art competition on the theme "Our flag is our honor".

The jury of the contest, which consisted of People's Artists, chose 12 best paintings among 460 items sent by children from all over Azerbaijan. The paintings will serve as a background for a new 2013 official calendar devoted to the Azerbaijani flag. All authors of the paintings were awarded valuable prizes and certificates.

The event, which was held on the National Flag Square, where a huge Azerbaijani flag stands, was accompanied with national dances and songs awakening patriotic feelings.

After the official part of the event, the guests were invited to the area around the flag and witnessed a magnificent spectacle as six thousand colorful air balloons were released into the sky. Afterwards, they visited the Museum of the National Flag Promotion, which is located right under the base of the flag.

In the evening, a great concert was held at the National Flag Square.

The creator of Azerbaijani flag is Mammad Amin Rasulzade, an outstanding politician and statesman, who was the founder of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, (ADR), the first-ever democratic republic in the Orient.

The state flag of Azerbaijan represents a rectangular panel consisting of three equal horizontal bands colored blue, red, and green, with a white crescent and an eight-pointed star centered in the red band. The blue strip symbolizes Turkic heritage, while the red color stands for establishment of a modern state and development of democracy, and the green strip shows the nation's relation to the Islamic civilization. In the middle of the red strip on both sides of the flag there is a white-color crescent and an eight-point star.

Mammad Amin Rasulzade, the President of the Azerbaijani National Council, once noted in a speech at a session of the ADR parliament that the meaning of the colors relates to Turkic freedom, modernity and Islamic culture.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed an order to declare November 9 as National Flag Day in November 2009.

The ADR, which existed for only 23 months until the Soviet Red Army's invasion in 1920, adopted the Azerbaijani tricolor as the national flag of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic on November 9, 1918.

After gaining independence from the USSR in 1991, the Supreme Council of the Azerbaijan Republic announced a tricolor flag with a star and a crescent as the national flag of Azerbaijan, which is a symbol of Azerbaijani national sovereignty.

National Flag Square was inaugurated with President Aliyev's participation in Baku on September 1, 2010. Aliyev signed an order to create the square in the Azerbaijani capital on November 17, 2007.

The national flag with a 162 meter-high flagpole measures 70 meters high and 35 meters wide and weighs 350 kilograms. The total weight of the construction is 220 tons. The flag's total area is 2,450 square meters with a weight of about 350 kilograms.

The Museum of the National Flag Promotion was established in the area upon President Aliyev's initiative.