http://www.crwflags....w/flags/dz.html
Algeria
al Djazair - Democratic and Popular Algerian Republic
Flag adopted 3 July 1962, national emblem adopted 1 November 1976.
Ratio: 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
Official description of the flag of Algeria
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 shown by 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. The standard is said to have been found in 1914 in the mosque of Taza in Morocco. It was taken over by a captain of the French Army, whose family offerred it to the Army Museum in Hôtel des Invalides in Paris. The flag was retroceded to Algeria in 1970 by Jacques Chevallier, Mayor of Algiers during the French rule, in 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
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Star of North Africa (Independentist movement, Algeria, 1926)
Etoile nord-africaine
Flag of the Star of North Africa of 1928
Flag of the Star of North Africa
In 1928, an independence movement that had been created in 1926 used a flag attributed to Abd-el-Kader. The movement (Star of North Africa) had little success for the moment, but the flag was destined to endure and to be converted into the national flag in 1962. Note that the star had the same position as in the present flag, but the emblem as a whole was not as wide.
This flag was designed by the nationalist leader Messali Hadj. As a matter of supposition, it may be noted that Hadj was aware that the colors of Abd-el-Kader were green and white, and as the only flag he had seen was that of France, he arrayed these colors vertically. The crescent moon and the star already appear as a local symbol on a 1927 postage stamp, and the line of separation between the green and the white is used as the the base of the star (whose upper point is toward the fly). I suspect that the emblem was really drawn with the flag in a vertical position, with the white upward, to copy the symbol in other flags (as for example the military flag described above). In that case, the area of the emblem would be one-third and it would be centered.
Jaume Ollé, 24 December 2001, translated from Spanish by Joe McMillan
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Algerian People's Party
The nationalist movement moved forward and in 1937 the Algerian People's Party (Parti du peuple algérien) was created to replace the Star of North Africa.
Its flag was the same as that of the 1928 movement, or with minor differences.
Jaume Ollé, 24 December 2001, translated from Spanish by Joe McMillan
http://www.crwflags....gs/dz_snaf.html
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http://www.crwflags....w/flags/dz.html
Algerian naval ensign
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; (with extra lines in star) right, 1999 (with algeria in arabic))
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
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National Liberation Front (Front de libération nationale, FLN)
Flag of the FLN, 1954
The National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Algeria. It was set up on 1 November 1954 as a merger of other smaller groups, to obtain independence for Algeria from France.
The party was a continuation of the revolutionary body that directed the war for independence against France. The National Liberation Front was created by the Revolutionary Committee of Unity and Action. This Committee urged all the warring factions of the nationalist movement to unite and fight against France. By 1956 nearly all the nationalist organizations in Algeria had joined the National Liberation Front. At this time the National Liberation Front reorganized into something like a provisional government. It consisted of a five-man executive and legislative body.
The war for independence continued until March of 1962 when finally, the French government signed a cease-fire agreement with the National Liberation Front (Evian Accords). In July of that same year the Algerian people voted for a referendum that approved the cease-fire agreement with France and supported economic and social cooperation between the two countries as well.
After independence, the party experienced an internal power stuggle. To counter this the Political Bureau was established by Ahmed Ben Bella, Colonel Houari Boumédienne, and Muhammad Khidr. Ahmed Ben Bella became the Premier in 1963 but was overthrown by Boumédienne in 1965. The Colonel held tight control over the party leadership until his death in 1978, at which time the party reorganized into its present incarnation.
The National Liberation Front held the position of being the sole legal party in Algeria until the late 1980s, when the Algerian Constitution was finally amended to allow a multiparty system.
Source: Wikipedia
Esteban Rivera, 7 July 2005
The FLN adopted the so-called flag of Abdelkader, precisely that created by Hadj in 1928, somewhat resembling the present Algerian flag. In all the available photos, the emblem appears at least as wide as in the present flag. The ratio is uncertain but could be 2:3 or 3:5. It is supposed that Hadj maintained the same flag certainly in 3:5.
Jaume Ollé, 24 December 2001, translated from Spanish by Joe McMillan
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Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (Gouvernement provisoire de la République algérienne, GPRA)
Flag of the GPRA
A Committee for the Liberation of the Maghreb was created and later a National Committee of the Algerian Revolution. Deriving from the latter, an Algerian government in exile (Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic, Gouvernement provisoire de la République algérienne) was officially created in Cairo 19 September 1958, under the presidency of Ferhat Abbas, who on 27 August 1961 was replaced by the leftist Yusef Ben Jedda.
The flag of the GPRA appears in a photo of 3 July 1962, when, with Yusuf ben Jedda in front of it, it arrived at the Algiers airport (Enciclopedia Europeo Americana, Appendix 1961-1962). Observe that the points of the star are shaped similar to those in the present flag, penetrating slightly into the green. The area of the crescent moon and star is somewhat less (a third of the hoist, while now it is half), and the width of the white is approximately twice that of the green.
Jaume Ollé, 24 December 2001, translated from Spanish by Joe McMillan
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Nationalist flags
Four flags used by Algerian nationalists in the 1960s
During the years of the liberation struggle diverse variations of the nationalist flag were used, but the majority were similar to the present national flag, notwithstanding that there are photos and reports of other flags.
Jaume Ollé, 24 December 2001, translated from Spanish by Joe McMillan
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Flag of a proposed Algerian Federation
Les Débats, 16 January 2008, has published "La question du partage de l'Algérie pendant la guerre d'indépendance (The question of the share of Algeria during the war of independence), a very detailed study by Benhamouda Kamel-Eddine(University of Lyon 2). The author analyzes the different projects aiming at giving autonomy to Algeria, considered by several French politicians as the only way to preserve French Algeria.
Regarding the flag of the future federation, Dr. Thomson sent on 14 October 1956 a letter to Ferhat Abbas, stating that "France would certainly not approve the fellaghas' flag as the flag of your federation" (that is the flag eventually adopted by the Republic of Algeria after the independence). The author reports a proposal made by Thomson, but the wording (not a direct quote of Thomson) is not clear, mentioning blue-white-red stripes placed at right angle with the hoist (which would mean placed horizontally?), with in the middle of the white stripe two shaking hands (whose colour is not mentioned and might not have been considered by Thomson).
Ivan Sache, 26 January 2008
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French Governor's car flag
Jacques Soustelle's car flag
In January 1955, Jacques Soustelle was appointed Governor-General of Algeria. He used as a personal vehicle flag the French flag with his shield in the center. The shield is described thus:
"Per pale, gules a lion reversed or (a reference to Lyon, Soustelle's birthplace) and argent a cross of Lorraine or (proclaiming his adherence to Free France), on a chief azure seven stars (representing the rank of Governor-General) supported by a crescent (symbol of Algeria) and flanked by the initials J and S, all or".
Source: Vexillinfo [vxf] #62.
Jaume Ollé, 24 December 2001, translated from Spanish by Joe McMillan
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Erroneous flag report (1958): Coastal Zone and Sahara
Erroneous flag of Algerian Sahara
After five years of war, on 16 September 1959, French President De Gaulle offered Algeria the right of self-determination. The President proposed that the Saharan regions would remain French and the rest of the country would be integrated into France or form a Federation.
The idea of holding onto the Sahara (where France was carrying out nuclear tests) with a scarce population and where sustaining a war against France would be difficult, was not new. In 1958 a chart of the flags of the world showed one distinctive flag for the coastal zone and another for the Sahara. That of the coast was the flag of the FLN, but for the Sahara there was a green flag with a red crescent moon.
Jaume Ollé, 24 December 2001, translated from Spanish by Joe McMillan
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Unideintified flags from the independence period
Two unidentified flags - Images by Ivan Sache, 25 December 2005
A picture on the cover of the book Nouvelle Algérie by Michel Cretin-Vercel (Albin-Michel, 1963) shows street decorations. There is, unfortunately, no caption to the picture but "after A.D.P. agency". The picture shows horizontal rows of green and white flags. There are two striking flags showing the crescent and star of the national Algerian flag, but the red colour is not used on any flag shown on the picture. Moreover, there is a big white horizontal banderole with the motto, in red, A BAS LE CULTE DE LA PERSONNALITE (Down with the cult of personality).
It seems, therefore, that the picture was taken during the early days of the independence and that the flags and banderoles oppose to the seizure of the power by the FLN (associated with the red colour and the cult of pesonnality). The book mentions the "group of Tlemcen", that fought with the very same motto A bas le culte de la personnalité.
Ivan Sache, 25 December 2005
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