Carine el-Asheq, “Akhbar al-Yawm” agency

Syrians rebels bring back independence…What’s the story behing the Syrian flag?

The current one is different in its colors and the number of stars

The regime of Bashar al-Assad fell at dawn last Sunday, and a different stage began in this country, which witnessed many coups, and in parallel a new flag rose, and it is noteworthy that this flag was raised for the first time outside Syria on the embassy building in Moscow, followed by other embassies down to Beirut, and also on many Syrian official institutions.

This phenomenon has raised many questions about what this new flag is, which came different in its colors and the number of stars in it from the Syrian flag, which was adopted at the forefront of the period of Assad's rule for more than half a century...What is the flag that Syrian rebels are using?

This flag was first raised in early January 1932 during the reign of the First Republic in Damascus when Syria was under the French mandate and was called the independence flag.

At a later stage, the sixth article of the Syrian constitution, which was issued after independence on April 17, 1946, stipulated in its first chapter the final version of the flag approved by the Constituent Assembly in 1950, so the Syrian flag should be as follows: its length is twice as wide, and it is three equal parallel colors above white, green and black, and the white section contains in a straight line three red five-pointed stars.

Then, when the unity between Syria and Egypt was established on February 22, 1958, Gamal Abdel Nasser adopted a new flag of the United Arab Republic, with two stars in green, but soon stopped using it after the separation in 1961, so the "flag of independence" returned to the forefront.

After that, the Baathist Party came to power in 1963 after a coup against power, and the flag of Nasser, or the United Republic, was revived again, adding a third Baathist star to it.

In 2011, the Syrian National Council, which was the official cover of the opposition, adopted the "flag of independence" as its slogan, and both armed factions used it shortly after.

This flag was raised after the outbreak of the Syrian uprising against the Assad regime in popular protests, to return now after the fall of Assad to the Syrian arena, it spread almost all over the country, until the social media platforms of ministries, embassies and media replaced the "regime flag" on their official accounts.

Will the flag of independence remain, or will Syria witness a new update of its national liberation symbol?