Flag Wars in Macedonia

The flag of the Republic of Macedonia (Macedonian: Знаме на Република Македонија) depicts a stylised yellow sun on a red field, with eight broadening rays extending from the centre to the edge of the field. It was created by Pr. Miroslav Grčev and was adopted on 5 October 1995 after a one-year economic blockade imposed by Greece in order to force the Republic of Macedonia to remove the ancient Macedonian Vergina Sun from the flag.


Mavi Boncuk |Macedonia gained independence from Yugoslavia on September 8, 1991. When Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia the flag was red with a red star in the top left corner. The Macedonian flag was adopted on October 5, 1995. Greece objected to the new republic calling itself Macedonia and to the design of the new national flag. Greece already had a province called Macedonia and feared Macedonia had intentions to extend its border to include Greek Macedonia. Greece also objected to the use of Alexander the Great's Star of Vergina[1], which appeared on Macedonia's original flag (from 1991 to 95) as Greeks believed the symbol culturally belonged to Greece and wasn't a Slavic symbol. In July 1995, Greece lodged a request with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Macedonia then removed the star from their flag.

[1] Vergina Sun, Star of Vergina or Argead Star is the name given to a symbol of a stylised star or sun with sixteen rays. It was unearthed in 1977 during archaeological excavations in Vergina, in the northern Greek region of Macedonia, by Professor Manolis Andronikos.