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North Macedonia

Republic of North Macedonia

Last modified: 2024-01-13 by rob raeside
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[Flag] image by Željko Heimer, 26 June 2005

Flag adopted 5 October 1995, coat of arms adopted 31 December 1946.
Proportions: 1:2.
Description: Red field with a golden sun in the middle, with eight rays thickening towards the end.
Designer: Prof. Miroslav Grcev.
Use: on land, as the civil, state and war flag.

Colour approximate specifications (Album des Pavillons [pay00]):

         Pantone	   CMYK (%) 
Red       485c          0 100   90  0
Yellow    108c          0   0  100  0

On this page:

See also:

Note: Macedonia was renamed North Macedonia in 2018. References posted before 2018 generally use then name "Macedonia".


Legal prescription of the flag

The national flag, arms and anthem of North Macedonia are prescribed in Article 5 of the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia (text), adopted on 17 November 1991 and last amended on 12 April 2011, as follows:

Article 5.
The state symbols of the Republic of Macedonia are the coat of arms, the flag and the national anthem. The coat of arms, the flag and the national anthem of the Republic of Macedonia are adopted by law by a two-thirds majority vote of the total number of Assembly Representatives

Ivan Sache, 5 March 2002

The flag of Macedonia is prescribed by the Act on the Flag of the Republic of Macedonia, adopted on 5 October 1995 by the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia and promulgated the same day by Decree No. 08-3359/1, published on 6 October 1995 in the official gazette of the Republic of Macedonia).

Article 2.
The flag of the Republic of Macedonia is red with a golden-yellow sun. The sun has eight rays, emerging from the sun disk, thickening towards the end. The sun rays spread diagonally, horizontally and vertically.
The diameter of the sun disk is equal to one-seventh of the length of the flag.
The centre of the sun matches the intersection of the diagonals of the flag.
The ratio between the width and the length of the flag is one to two.

Article 3.
The design illustration of the flag of the Republic of Macedonia is a constitutent part of this Act.

Article 4.
On the day this Act comes into effect the Act on the Flag of the Republic of Macedonia (Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia No. 50/92) ceases to exist.

Article 5.
This Act comes into effect on the day of its publication in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia.

Jos Poels, 21 November 1995


Construction sheet of the flag

[Flag]

Construction sheet of the flag of Macedonia - Reconstruction after the law by Željko Heimer, 26 June 2005

The overall proportions of the flag and the diameter of the sun disk (1/7 of the flag's length, or 40 units based on a flag sheet of 140 x 280 units) are the only explicit dimensions provided in the Law. The other construction details have to be assumed from the drawing.
Unfortunately, the Law does not say anything either on the width of the fimbriation around the disk or on the geometry of the sun rays end.
The width of the vertical ands horizontal rays at the edge of the flag is 1/10 of the flag's length (28 units). The triangles forming the horizontal rays reach the center of the flag, while the triangles forming the vertical rays reach an imaginary circle with diameter half of the sun disk diameter (20 units).
The diagonal sun rays have one edge matching the flag's diagonal, while the other edge reaches an imaginary circle with diameter 1/8 of the sun disk diameter (5 units). The width of the diagonal sun rays at the edge of the flag is 1.5 times the width of the horizontal and vertical rays (42 units).
Finally, the diameter of the imaginary circle forming the outer edge of the red fimbriation around the sun disk is 50 units.

In his book Znaci i ornamenti (Muzej na sovremena umetnost, Skopje, 2005), Miroslav Grcev (b. 1955, Professor of Urban Planning at the Faculty of Architecture of Skoplje) provides his original flag proposal and the construction sheet.
The proposed flag is in proportions 5:8, which is a good approximation of the Golden section, Φ, according to the designer, drawn on an array of 10 x 16 squares, each of side A. The central disk circumscribes the four cebntral squares, having therefore a diameter of A x √ 2). The eight yellow rays are formed by triangles: the vertical rays have the apex in the centre of the flag and the base of 2 x A in length, the horizontal rays have the apex A away from the centre in opposite directions and the base also of 2 x A in length, and the diagonal rays have the apex in the opposite corners of a rectangle of 2 x A in width on 1.25 x A in height and the base of 3 x A in length along the flag's top and bottom edges and touching the host and fly corners; accordingly, the flag's diagonals form the division lines between the red and yellow fields there.
Apparently the Parliament (or, probably, some of its committees) amended the flag's overall proportions to 1:2 and added a red ring around the sun disk.

Željko Heimer, 12 February 2009

The protocol manual for the London 2012 Olympics (Flags and Anthems Manual London 2012 [loc12]) provides recommendations for national flag designs. Each NOC was sent an image of the flag, including the PMS shades, for their approval by LOCOG. Once this was obtained, LOCOG produced a 60 x 90 cm version of the flag for further approval. So, while these specs may not be the official, government, version of each flag, they are certainly what the NOC believed the flag to be.
For Macedonia (FYROM) [as the country was named at the time], PMS 485 red, 108 yellow. The vertical flag is simply the horizontal version turned 90 degrees clockwise.

Ian Sumner, 10 October 2012


Process of adoption of the flag

According to Nova Makedonija, 20 September 1995, the Republic of Macedonia will have a new national flag as soon as 5 October, when the Parliament session on the issue is scheduled. The paper presents two options for the flag, both having a red background and a golden-yellow symbol as the central figure. The first solution for the symbol would be a rising or setting half-sun, while the second will be a sun with rays spreading horizontally, vertically or diagonally across the flag.
The paper also says that parties represented in the Parliament are already discussing the possible design of the new flag.

Sources close to the Presidency of the Parliament say that next Thursday or Friday, a procedure is to begin to adopt a new flag. Along with the flag, the Parlament will discuss about the already forgotten Law on a national coat of arms.
The agenda of the session has not yet been precisely determined, but the procedure is expected to be completed before the 30-day deadline, defined in last week's agreement Macedonia signed with Greece in New York.
As days are numbered, the 16-sun-rays flag that represented Macedonia since August 1992 will be replaced in a short procedure. Meaning, the proposal to pass a new Law on the flag, as a first stage, will be presented at the same time with the definite version of the suggested Law, which is a third stage. In this way, the Parliament will skip over the usual practice to debate over a draft law. Thus shortened, the procedure will enable the Parliament to get the entire matter completed in a single day. Under the current procedural regulations, however, a Parliament session cannot be scheduled before 15 days after the procedure has been started.
As far as the procedure goes, there are announcements that the Government will not be the one to come up with a suggested solution, but the proposal is to come from a group of representatives. The intention is to have a group of members of Parliament including elements from all the parliamentary groups. The suggestion will first of all be discussed by the Constitutional Commission and will then be proceeded to the Parliament. Another option is to have the Parliament signatories proposing a solution determined by the Constitutional Commission.

The basis for deciding on the new flag, sources inform, will be the proposals that were selected during the open competition held three years ago, when independent national symbols were designed for the first time. The following six ideas were then bought out: MAKO by Dimko Krstevski, Phoenix 92 by Kostadin Tancev, 5222 by Branko Kostovski, A-OPULSI 68 by Ilija Spasovski, Makedonija 992 by Aco Mitrevski and 08002 by Milivoj Gruevski.
Over 100 submissions entered the competition in 1992, with the red and golden-yellow colors as predominating features. The most frequently suggested symbol was the sun, drawn in all kinds of stylized shapes. Upon a proposal of the jury, the Constitutional Commission voted by a majority of votes in favor of the suggested red flag with a many-rayed sun in the middle. It is these two elements that have led many spectators to believe the new flag will also have red color as a basic one and again a golden sun as a center symbol, only this time in a shape quite different from the current one. Some even point out to three suggestions as the most serious candidates.

The opening of the procedure for replacement of the national flag will also be used to decide on a national coat of arms. The previous Parliament failed to provide the required 80 votes in favor to adopt this symbol. The matter then stopped at an argument between the Constitutional Commission and the VMRO-DPMNE parliamentarian group. The Commission's suggestion was to have a golden many-rayed sun in the middle (an application of its suggestion for the flag), whereas the VMRO-DPMNE representatives insisted on a lion as a central figure. Neither suggestion was given the necessary two-thirds majority of votes and the issue was dropped and left for better times in the future.
It should be pointed out here, however, that the SDSM member of Parliament Nikola Popovski did initiate a procedure on the coat of arms as early as last spring. His idea was to keep the old coat of arms but without the five-pointed star. Some say that his suggestion will be in the race along with the most successful ideas of the 1992 open competition. Unofficial sources even say that the new flag symbol will also appear on the national coat of arms.

As A1 TV informs, calling on its sources, the new symbol on the Macedonian flag most probably will be a sun with eight sun rays on a red base. Meantime, there are two possible variants for the flag, the difference being the length of the sunrays. Proposers of the new symbol are a group of delegates of the election coalition Alliance for Macedonia and their number may be over 80 representatives.

Andrej Brodnik, 21 September 1995, quoting Macedonian Information and Liaison Service News, 20 September 1995


Macedonia flag day

The Macedonia flag day was celebrated for the first time on 15 May 2010.

Valentin Poposki, 10 August 2010


The biggest Macedonia flag

The biggest North Macedonia flag ever was made for the football match between Macedonia and England, played in Skopje on 6 September 2006. Made of cloth, the flag is 28 m x 50 m long and weights about 200 kg.
Ordered by Skopska Pivara (Skopje Brewery) as a gift for the fans. the flag was displayed across the southern part of the Skopje stadium.

Valentin Poposki, 7 September 2006


The flag in the national anthem

The first two stanza of the North Macedonia national anthem (Denes nad Makedonija - Today in Macedonia; text) say:

Today on Macedonia, is born
the new sun of liberty
The Macedonians fight
for their own rights!
The Macedonians fight
for their own rights!

For now on, the flag flies
(that) of the Kručevo Republic
Goce Delčev, Pitu Guli
Dame Gruev, Sandanski!
Goce Delčev, Pitu Guli
Dame Gruev, Sandanski!

According to Vele Samak, the anthem was composed and created in 1944 or 1943 by Vlado Maleski, a poet from Struga. It was adopted as an anthem of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia when it was established after the Second World War. Later the song was selected to be the anthem of the newly established independent Republic of Macedonia.

Ivan Sache, 28 February 2002

The town of Delčevo was named after the Macedonian revolutionary Goce Delčev (1872-1903), who was one of the leaders of the Ilinden uprising against the Ottomans.
Pitu Guli (1865-1903), a military leader (duke) in Kručevo led a band of rebels ocassionally since 1885. He was later the main military leader of the Ilinden uprising.
Dame (Damjan) Gruev (1871-1906) was a close coworker of Goce Delčev. Imprisoned by the Turks in 1900, he was one of the leaders of the Ilinden uprising, killed in Turkish pursuit.
Jane Sandanski (1872-1915) was a Macedonian liberation fighter. Active in fight against the Vrhovists, he cooperated much with the Young Turks and led a military group that helped the Young Turkish Revolution in Istanbul. In 1909, he was appointed leader of the National Federative Party, established that year. After the Balkan Wars, he fought for favourous solution of the Macedonian question and was killed by deceit by the Vhrovists.

Željko Heimer, 13 March 2002