Flag of Syria

Green, white and black with three red stars: the flag of Syrian independence, which became official again in 2025.

Learn to read it Test yourself

The flag, in figures

Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.

Proportions: 2:33 wide for every 2 high. 989 flags in the catalogue share it.
Properties: Normal flagFIAV symbol: the form of the flag.
Use: CivilFIAV symbol: who may fly the flag.
Adopted: 202513 March 2025 · 1 years ago
Colours: Green
White
Black
Red
Reference shades: the official one may vary slightly.
Coat of arms: YesIt carries the coat of arms on the cloth.

Take a closer look

The three stripes
1
The green stripe
2
The black stripe
3
The three stars

How it is described

The flag in the words of vexillology and heraldry.

Vexillological description

It is a rectangular field with a 2:3 ratio divided into three equal horizontal stripes —green, white and black— with three red stars on the middle one.

Stripes: stripes are bands of colour; here three, from top to bottom green, white and black, of the same width.
Stars: three five-pointed red ones, aligned and centred on the white stripe.
No coat of arms: it carries no coat of arms or inscription.

What it carries

Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.

Its history in dates

Every date in its story, at a glance.

1916
Its colours are the so-called Pan-Arab ones, the same used by the Arab revolt against the Ottoman…
1930
In 1930 the first constitution of the Syrian Republic was approved
1946
It was the flag of the country when it won full independence, in 1946
1958
The two-green-star design of 1958 comes back
1961
It was used again between 1961 and 1963
2011
During the civil war that began in 2011
2024
After the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in December 2024
2025
The constitutional declaration of March 2025 makes it official

The full story

How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.

The flag of Syria has three horizontal stripes, green, white and black, with three red stars in the centre. It is the flag the country became independent with, and it has been official again after more than sixty years.

How it came about

After the First World War, Syria came under French control. In 1930 the first constitution of the Syrian Republic was approved, drafted by a commission led by the nationalist politician Ibrahim Hananu. That constitution described the flag: three equal stripes, green, white and black, with three red stars in a line.

It was the flag of the country when it won full independence, in 1946. Its colours are the so-called Pan-Arab ones, the same used by the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire between 1916 and 1918.

How it has changed

The Syrian flags of the 20th century followed the attempts at union with other Arab countries: every union brought a new design.

Varios autores (ver el historial del archivo) · Public domain
1930-1958
The flag of the republic and of independence. It was used again between 1961 and 1963.
1958-1961
Syria joins Egypt in the United Arab Republic. The new flag is red, white and black, with two green stars: one for each country.
Thespoondragon · Public domain
1963-1972
After the Ba’ath Party comes to power, a third star is added for a union project that also included Iraq.
Flag_of_Egypt_1972.svg: Current vector version by Editor at Large derivative work: Orange Tuesday (talk) · Public domain
1972-1980
Syria enters the Federation of Arab Republics, with Egypt and Libya, and the stars are replaced by a golden falcon.
1980-2024
The two-green-star design of 1958 comes back. During the civil war that began in 2011, the opposition recovered the flag of independence as a symbol of its own.
Modification by AnonMoos of PD image File:Flag of Syria (1930–1958, 1961–1963).svg (previous non-vector versions were by Coup de crayon 2011) · Public domain
2025
After the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in December 2024, the new government adopts the flag of independence. The constitutional declaration of March 2025 makes it official, a little less elongated than the 1930 one.

What it means

The meanings come from the time of independence:

Green, white and black
according to the most widespread reading, three great caliphates of Arab history: that of the first caliphs (green), that of the Umayyads (white) and that of the Abbasids (black).
Three red stars
in 1930 they stood for three territories of the country: Aleppo, Damascus and Deir ez-Zor. Later they were reinterpreted to include other regions that joined the country.

Fun facts

It changed on the phone first
Apple was the first company to update the Syrian flag emoji. The version with three red stars arrived with iOS 18.4, in the spring of 2025, and the other companies followed months later.
Raised at the UN
On 25 April 2025 the Syrian foreign minister raised the new flag at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York.
The flag of a union that no longer existed
From 1980 to 2024 Syria used the flag of the United Arab Republic, although its union with Egypt had ended in 1961. Egypt, for its part, had abandoned it in 1972.