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Algeria

al Djazair - Democratic and Popular Algerian Republic

Flag of Algeria - Image by Željko Heimer, 28 January 2001

Flag adopted 3 July 1962, national emblem adopted 1 November 1976.
Proportions: 2:3.
Description: Flag vertically divided green-white with a red crescent and star in the middle.
Use: on land, as the national, civil and war flag; on sea, as the national and civil ensign.

Colour approximate specifications (as given in Album des Pavillons [pay00]):

Green: Pantone 356c / CMYK (%) C 100 - M 0 - Y 90 - K 25
Red: Pantone 186c / CMYK (%) C 0 - M 90 - Y 80 - K 5

On this page:

Official description of the flag of Algeria
History of the flag of Algeria
Naval ensign
Naval jack
Presidential flag

See also:

Official description of the flag of Algeria

Construction sheet for the flag of Algeria - Image by Željko Heimer, 28 January 2001

The national flag of Algeria is officially described as follows:

Features
The flag of the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria is constituted by a green and white rectangle embossed by a red star and a red crescent.
Colours
The green must be a composition of equal yellow and blue having, according to the diagram of contrasts of Rood, a wavelength of 5.411 and the position 600 on the normal spectre. The red must be pure, of primary non-decomposable colour, and exempt of blue and yellow having, according to the above-indicated diagram, a wavelength of 6.562 and the position 285 on the normal spectre.
Ratio and disposition
The length of the rectangle is equal to one and half its width (height of the flag). This rectangle is divided according to the small median in two halves. The green colour half is placed inside, against the shaft. The white colour half is placed outside.
The star has five branches. It is inscribed in a circle whose radius is equal to the eighth of the height of the flag. It is entirely placed on the white field of the flag; two points are on the small median of the rectangle and a point is on the big median.
The radius of the outside circle of the crescent is equal to the quarter of the height of the flag. The radius of the inner circle of the crescent is equal to the fifth of the height of the flag. The two points of the crescent delimit a big equal bow to the five sixth of the circumference of the outside circle. The centre of the outside circle of the crescent is in the centre of the rectangle.

Thanh-Tâm Lê, 2 January 1999

History of the flag of Algeria

The flag was first officially hoisted on 3 July 1962. The flag is said to be a variation of the flag of liberation forces of Abd el-Kader in 1837-1847, but there is no proof of that.

Željko Heimer, 28 November 1995

Quoting the Dorling-Kindersley flag book [rya97]:

[...] the flag was adopted by the National Liberation Front in 1954, based on an older design, created in 1928 by the nationalist leader Messali Hadj. From 1958 to 1962 it was the flag of the Provisional Government in exile, but was retained when independence was achieved in 1962 and has remained unchanged ever since.

The meaning of the colors is green for Islam and white for purity. According to Herzog and Hannes [hea90], the white color also reminds of Abd el-Kader, who used a white flag in his fight against the French in 1847.

Volker Moerbitz Keith, 11 April 2000

The origin of the Algerian national flag and the identity of its designer are still unresolved questions, as explained in an article by Houda B. published in El Watan, #2052, 20 August 1997.
The historian M. Yahia claims that the flag was sketched in 1934, the three colours symbolizing the expected unification of the three countries of Northern Africa (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia). The first copy of the flag was made by Messali El Hadj's wife in July 1937. The flag was used for the first time in Algiers and Belcourt during demonstrations on 14 July 1937. However, Yahia writes that the flag could have been shown for the first time in the seat of the Étoile nord-africaine (Star of North Africa) party in Paris in 1933 and used for the first time in Algeria in Algiers and Tlemcen in 1934. Another historian, M. Ghannèche, quoted by Yahia, reports that an Algerian flag with the crescent and star located in the upper part of the flag was adopted, and modified to the today's design in 1943 by the Parti du peuple algérien (Algerian People's Party, the follower of Étoile nord-africaine).

Yahia reports that Emir Abd-el-Kader used a white and green standard, which was found after his death in Cairo. However, Abd-el-Kader's standard is indeed shown in the Army Museum of Riadh El Feth in Algiers. The standard is dark blue, c. 1 x 2 m, bordered with ocher and orange squares. Said to have been found in 1914 in the mosque of Taza in Morocco, the flag was taken over by a captain of the French Army, whose family offerred it to the Army Museum in Hôtel des Invalides, Paris. The flag was retroceded to Algeria in 1970 by Jacques Chevallier, Mayor of Algiers during the French rule, during an official visit to Algiers.

A documentary made by the Algerian TV a few years ago says that the Algerian flag appeared for the first time on 26 June 1926 as the flag of the Étoile nord-africaine. The flag was green with in the upper right corner the writing "Algerian our country, Arabic our language and Islam our religion" in white Arabic letters and in the upper left corner a red star and crescent. In 1944, Fehrat Abbas presided in Setif the National Conference, during which the members of the Amis du manifeste et des libertés used a modified version of the 1926 flag. A report of the headquarters of the French Army in Constantine says that Fehrat Abbas asked women of his family to prepare 20 flags for the Setif conference. A facsimile appended to the report shows a white flag with two green horizontal stripes in the top and bottom of the flag, a red cross on the right of the flag and a red star near the hoist.

There is no official document on the national flag but Law 63-145 of 25 April 1963, signed by President Ben Bella and published in the official gazette on 30 April 1963.

Ivan Sache, 17January 2008

Naval ensign

Algerian naval ensign and detail of the emblem - Images by Martin Grieve, 9 April 2009

The Algerian naval ensign is similar to the national flag, but with two fouled anchors crossed per saltire in canton. The flag is shown on two photos taken by Graham Bartram and presented as follows:

It was taken at the International Festival of the Sea in Portsmouth in 2005. This particular flag was on a staff at the bottom of the gangplank to the Algerian warship that was attending, but the ensign on the ship matched. The flag is actually being held up by the Algerian Naval Officer who was officer of the watch at the time.

Martin Grieve, 10 April 2009

Former Algerian naval ensign - Image by Jaume Ollé & Pascal Gross, 28 January 2001

The former Algerian naval ensign was reported in Emblèmes et Pavillons [eep] No. 17. The reference does not have a drawing and is only a report of the new flag which was contained in Correction No. 19 of Album des Pavillons (1978 edition), dated September 1987. The description states that the anchors are in red.
The same flag is shown on Album des Pavillons [pie90] (1990 edition).

Ralph Kelly & Željko Heimer, 29 April 2009

Naval jack

Jean Gacic, current editor of Album des Pavillons, sent me two photos of Algerian naval ships, clearly flying the naval jack. This is a blue flag with the national flag in canton (smaller than the "British canton"). The blue colour seems to be like on the naval rank flags.

Željko Heimer, 8 April 2009

Presidential flag

The list of the Algerian Heads of State since the independence is the following:

1962-1963 Ferhat Abbas (Chairman of the Parliament)
1963-1965 Ahmed ben Bella (President)
1965-1976 Houari Boumediene (Chairman of the Council of the Revolution)
1976-1978 Houari Boumediene (President)
1978-1979 Rabah Bitat (acting)
1979-1992 Chadli Bendjedid (President)
1992-1992 Mohammed Boudiaf (Chairman of the High Committee of State)
1992-1994 Ali Kafi (Chairman of the High Committee of State)
1994-1999 Liamine Zeroual (President)
1999- Abdelaziz Bouteflika (President)

Two reported versions of the President's flag (left, 1979; right, 1999) - Images by Jaume Ollé, 24 December 2001

In 1979, President Bendjedid appeared on a photography together with a variant of the national flag that may be the Presidential flag. An identical flag was also reported as a possible Presidential flag by a correspondent of Aldo Zigiotto.
A possible Presidential flag was reported by J.L. Cepero on 23 March 1999, seen at the Presidential facilities on Algerian television. The inscription says Algeria and was confirmed by Algerian sources. The above image is approximate.

Jaume Ollé, 24 December 2001, translated from Spanish by Joe McMillan

On Algerian TV, when the Algerian President makes a speech in his office, there is always an Algerian coat of arms made in wood behind him and an Algerian flag with the star appearing with "dark" lines inside it, exactly in the same way as pictured above. As for the flag with the name of Algeria (written in yellow, in Arabic, on the green part of the flag), I have never seen it when the President makes his speech.

Omar Mouffok, 2 June 2007