The flag of the President of the Republic is an (approximately) square flag
based on the design of the Togolese national flag but having the square canton covering
a larger area than normal. In the canton the star from the national flag is
replaced by a golden laurel wreath with a smaller white star in its
base and between the branches are the initials GE in gold. These stand for Gnassingbé Eyadéma,
the President of Togo who took the power in 1967 when using the
name Étienne Eyadema [the accents are uncertain and are written
differently in several sources I consulted]. Eyadema changed his name to Gnassingbé on
08 May 1974 (according to
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1058/rulers.html).
The font, size and position of the initials is my interpretation ("reconstruction"
if you will) since the image in L'Album does not contain any initials.
Depending on when this flag was adopted, it may be that EE might also have been
used (but probably without accents. It may even be possible that
former presidents had versions of their own following the
French tradition. In that case here is the
list from the source mentioned above:
27 Apr 1960 - 13 Jan 1963
Sylvanus Olympio (b. 1902 - d. 1963)
(acting to 12 Apr 1961)
Nicolas Grunitzky (b. 1913 - d. 1969)
(acting to 5 May 1963)
14 Jan 1967 - 14 Apr 1967
Kléber Dadjo (b. 1914)
(chairman National Reconciliation Committee)
14 Apr 1967 - 05 Feb 2005
Étienne Eyadema (from 8 May 1974, Gnassingbe
Eyadema) (b. 1937)
Željko Heimer, 21 May 2000
Gnassingbe Eyadema ruled Togo under a one-party system and died of a heart
attack on 05 February 2005. In terms of the Togolese Constitution, the
President of the Parliament, Fambaré Ouattara
Natchaba should have succeeded Eyadema as President pending the outcome of a
Presidential election to be called within 60 days. However, Natchaba was
out of the country at the time of Eyadema's death and the armed forces (Forces
Armées Togolaises) closed the country's borders and refused to allow
Natchaba to return to the country. With an engineered political vacuum,
parliament voted to remove the clause requiring a Presidential election to be
held within 60 days and declared Eyadema's son, Faure Gnassingbé,
would "inherit" the presidency and hold office for the remainder of his father's
term. Faure was sworn in as President on 07 February 2005, despite
international criticism.
The African Union described the takeover as a
coup d'etat and there was considerable opposition within the
country, particularly in the south were there were reports of
several deaths following civilian uprisings. In response, Faure
Gnassingbé agreed to hold elections. On 24 April 2005,
Gnassingbé was elected President of Togo after receiving over 60% of
the vote according to official results and was sworn in as President
on 03 May 2005. He was re-elected again in March 2010. Bruce Berry, 08 June 2013
The flag of the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces (Chef
de l'État-Major des Forces Armées) follows the same design
as the flag of the President of Togo but with different detail
contained in the red canton. Here a golden emblem consisting of two
rifles in saltire, an anchor palewise and an emblem standing
symbolically for wings, with over all a white five-pointed star.
Željko Heimer, 21 May 2000
The flag of the Commander in Chief of the Navy (Commandant de la
Marine) is of the same design as the previous flags. In this instance
the
emblem in the red canton consists of two golden anchors in saltire
and a white star superimposed in the
middle of the canton. This star seems to be notably smaller than the
one in the national flag (being about the same height as one stripe).
Željko Heimer, 21 May 2000
The Togolese war pennant (flamme de guerre) is a
long triangular pennant of green over yellow with red panel at
hoist.
The ratio of the pennant is given as 1:7~ in Correction 26 and
1:6.6~ in the original issue of L'Album 1990. The red field is
given as
less the 1/10 of the fly in the original L'Album 1990,
and is not quoted in correction 26. The image in correction 26 shows a pennant of ratio about 1:11 (my
estimate), with red field being of the same width as the
hoist (but that would agree with "less the 1/10").
Željko Heimer, 21 May 2000
