Flag: Azerbaijan Emoji

The flag of Azerbaijan, known domestically as the üç rəngli bayraq (three-colored banner). Three equal horizontal bands: sky-blue on top, red in the middle, green on the bottom, with a centered white crescent moon and white eight-pointed star on the red band. 1:2 ratio. Per the 1991 Constitutional Act on the Restoration of State Independence, blue stands for Azerbaijan's Turkic heritage, red for the modern state and democratic development, green for Islam.

🇦🇿 is posted from four main bases. Inside Azerbaijan (around 10.4 million people), the flag is a visible fixture of national life, particularly since Baku hosted Eurovision 2012 and began hosting the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in 2017. Across the border, between 15 and 20 million ethnic Azerbaijanis live in northwestern Iran, the largest single ethnic minority in the country; their relationship with the flag varies by generation and region. In Turkey, which Azerbaijan calls its 'sister country' (one nation, two states), around 4.5 million ethnic Azerbaijanis live with close family and language ties. And a growing global diaspora of several hundred thousand spans Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and the US.

The emoji is a regional indicator sequence: U+1F1E6U+1F1E6 + U+1F1FFU+1F1FF. Added in Emoji 1.0 (2015). On platforms without flag support, falls back to the letters AZAZ.

The current design was first flown by the short-lived Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) from November 9, 1918 to April 1920. Under Soviet rule (1920 to 1991) a Soviet-style flag flew instead. The Nakhchivan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic re-adopted the ADR tricolor on November 17, 1990, and the Republic of Azerbaijan formally restored it on February 5, 1991. Exact color specifications were codified on October 22, 2013.

🇦🇿 usage has three recurring patterns.

Baku as event host. Since 2012, Azerbaijan has systematically used international events to pitch Baku to global audiences. The Eurovision Song Contest 2012, the 2015 European Games, the 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix since 2017, UEFA Euro 2020 group and quarterfinal games, and COP29 in November 2024 each produced a distinct 🇦🇿 spike. The F1 weekend in late April or early May is the most reliable annual driver.

Novruz. The March spring festival is the single biggest domestic 🇦🇿 window. Novruz is UNESCO-listed, shared with Iran, Turkey, Central Asia, and Kurdish communities, and in Azerbaijan it spans five public holiday days (March 20 to 24). Samani wheat sprouts, bonfire jumping, shekerbura pastries, and khoncha trays dominate the feed.

Nagorno-Karabakh and Victory Day. The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, in which Azerbaijan retook large parts of territory held since the 1990s by Armenian forces, and the September 2023 offensive that ended Armenian administration of the region, drove the sharpest sustained 🇦🇿 posting windows on record. President Aliyev's December 2, 2020 decree) established November 8 as Victory Day, marking the recapture of Shusha. On November 8, 2021, cadets carried a 440-metre flag through Baku. The day has become one of the biggest annual flag moments in the region, alongside November 9 (Flag Day) the following day.

Turkey pairing. 🇦🇿 🇹🇷 is one of the most common two-flag pairings in the Caucasus region, reflecting the 'one nation, two states' framing that governs Azerbaijani-Turkish cultural identity. It appears constantly in football content (Azerbaijani fans pull for Turkey internationally), news media, and bios.

A neutral note on context. Azerbaijan and Armenia remain in a long-running territorial dispute, and the 2020 and 2023 phases of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict produced an exodus of over 100,000 Armenians from the region. Independent organizations have raised human-rights concerns about those events. 🇦🇿 is widely posted across both Azerbaijani state and private channels, and we document its usage as observed. Other flags in the region (🇦🇲 and 🇬🇪) cover their own sides of the story.

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  Capital: Baku (40.41°N, 49.87°E)
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  Population: ~10.4 million (2024)
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  Area: 86,600 km²
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  Currency: Azerbaijani manat (AZN, ₼)
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  Languages: Azerbaijani (az, Turkic), Russian widely used
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  Calling code: +994
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  Time zone: AZT (UTC+4), no DST
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  Internet TLD: .az

Foods that show up next to 🇦🇿

Landmarks that anchor travel and national branding

Azerbaijan's flag story has three acts: the 1918 Democratic Republic, seven Soviet decades, and the post-1991 restoration.

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. On May 28, 1918, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed independence in Tiflis, then moved to Baku. The ADR became the first secular democratic republic in the Muslim world. Women got the vote in 1918, before most Western European countries. After briefly flying a plain red banner with a white crescent and star, parliament adopted the current three-band tricolor on November 9, 1918. Designer Ali bey Huseynzade, a Turkic intellectual, formulated the three-color scheme as a visual argument: 'Turkify, Islamicize, Modernize.' The ADR lasted 23 months before the Soviet 11th Red Army annexed Baku on April 28, 1920.

The Soviet decades. From 1920 to 1991 Azerbaijan flew Soviet-era flags. The ADR tricolor circulated in samizdat and diaspora publications. The Black January crackdown of January 19 to 20, 1990, in which Soviet troops killed at least 131 Baku civilians during the independence movement, produced the single-most-used image of that era: coffins draped in the banned ADR tricolor, photographed in Martyrs' Lane above Baku.

The 1990 to 1991 restoration. The Supreme Soviet of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, led by future president Heydar Aliyev, re-adopted the ADR tricolor on November 17, 1990. The Republic of Azerbaijan followed on February 5, 1991, and declared independence from the USSR on October 18, 1991). November 17 later became National Revival Day; November 9 became Flag Day under Law No. 595 in 2009.

The National Flag Square. Between 2007 and 2010, Baku built the National Flag Square on the Caspian waterfront, with a 162-metre flagpole carrying a flag 35 by 70 metres. It was the tallest free-standing flagpole in the world until Tajikistan surpassed it in 2011. The original flagpole was dismantled in 2017 and replaced with a lower structure during the broader redesign of the embankment.

The eight-pointed star. Unlike some national flag emblems, the eight points are not officially defined in any adopted text. Historians have proposed two main readings: the eight letters of 'Azerbaijan' in Arabic script (آذربایجان), or the eight branches of the Turkic peoples. Both circulate in museum literature and schoolbook explanations; neither is codified.

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  January 20: Black January (Qara yanvar): Somber. Commemorates the 1990 Soviet crackdown in Baku. Silent procession to Martyrs' Lane above the city. Flag at half-mast.
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  March 20 to 24: Novruz Bayramı: UNESCO-listed spring equinox. Five-day public holiday. Bonfire jumping, samani wheat sprouts, shekerbura and pakhlava pastries. The biggest domestic 🇦🇿 window.
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  May 28: Republic Day: Marks the 1918 proclamation of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the first secular democratic republic in the Muslim world.
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  June 26: Armed Forces Day: Military parade in Baku, Caspian naval review.
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  November 8: Victory Day (Zəfər günü): Marks the end of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war with the recapture of Shusha. A politically significant, relatively new addition to the calendar.
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  November 9: National Flag Day: Anniversary of the 1918 ADR flag adoption. Flag-raising ceremony at National Flag Square in Baku.
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  December 31: Day of Solidarity of World Azerbaijanis: Global diaspora day established in 1991. Cultural events across diaspora communities.

• •The 1918 Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was the first secular democratic republic in the Muslim world. Women received the vote in 1918, before most of Western Europe.
• •Azerbaijan is known as the 'Land of Fire' (Odlar Yurdu) thanks to natural gas seeps that have burned continuously for millennia. Yanar Dag, a hillside near Baku, still burns today.
• •Baku's Old City (Icheri Sheher) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The adjacent Maiden Tower dates to the 12th century.
• •Azerbaijan shares Novruz, the spring equinox festival, with Iran, Turkey, Central Asia, and Kurdish communities. The UNESCO inscription lists it as shared intangible heritage.
• •Azerbaijani dolma was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2017. The inscription frames dolma as shared across the Caucasus region, a framing that avoided a heated cross-border disagreement about origins.
• •Mugham, the traditional Azerbaijani improvised vocal-and-instrumental form, has been UNESCO-recognized since 2003. Every Baku event, including the F1 Grand Prix opening, features mugham at some point.
• •Azerbaijan competed at Eurovision 2012 wearing the tricolor on its signage. It has since hosted the contest once (2012) and had 17 entries through 2026, with one win (2011) and one host year.