National and State Flag of the Azerbaijan Republic (1991)
Azarbajchan Respublikasy

A similar flag to the current flag of Azerbaijan was used in Azerbaijan from 1917 until 1920.  

In 1920,  Azerbaijan was occupied by the army of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and became a Soviet state under the Soviet flag. 

The Soviet Union began to collapse in the late 1980s and Azerbaijan became and independent republic in 1991.  

Azerbaijan adopted its current national flag on the 5th of February 1991 and declared independence from the Soviet Union on the 30th of August 1991. 

The Symbolic Meaning

The combined crescent and star are symbols of Islam, as is the colour green.  

The star also recognizes the different Turkic peoples within Azerbaijan, with each point standing for one of the country's main ethnic groups: Azerbaijani, Ottoman, Jagatay, Tatar, Kazakh, Kipchak, Seljuk and Turkoman. 

Blue is symbolic of the Turkic world and the red on the flag is indicative of contemporary life.