BiH Flag Celebrates 20th Birthday

BiH, (Patria) - The current flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been officially in use since February 4, 1998, when the then High Representative Carlos Westendorp imposed the current flag because the deputies of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH could not agree on a new flag, and the coat of arms was adopted in mid-May 1998.

Professor Zdravko Grebo of the Faculty of Law in Sarajevo previously told Patria an interesting story about the entire process of creating and the meaning of the current flag and coat of arms and their elements. 

As he said, he had the opportunity to see the first prints of the proposals for the new coat of arms and the new flag.

- I remember it like it was today, all the variants were yellow-blue. Some were horizontal, then a larger blue stripe, then a smaller yellow one. In the end, there was also this proposal that we have today as the official coat of arms and flag of BiH. Not of the republic, but of BiH as it is called after Dayton. And that is this stylized yellow triangle, which should be a graphically cleansed space of the territory of BiH. We have this blue background and these two fields are divided by these white stars – Grebo told NAP.

As he said, he learned that the author of that solution was some Dutch designer, which makes him a little uncomfortable, because, as he said, in all countries that value themselves and that refer to tradition, national pride, statehood, such symbols must be the product of someone from the country, and in this case, a foreigner did it.

- What is almost a caricature and what calls the whole idea into question is that these white stars, which symbolize the European Union, meaning the first and the last are stars with a "handicap". On the flag, the first star has a head and hands, but no legs, and the last one only has legs, and someone told me that it means that these stars are permanently circling and flowing, the upper one is coming out, the lower one is entering, and then they are constantly doing some work on our coat of arms and flag – Grebo said.

He added that people's identification with their country is built through these symbols, including the anthem.

Grebo also added that as a legalist, he accepts and respects the coat of arms and flag of his country, the anthem without lyrics, which is quite a precedent, but that he has no emotional attachment.

- No one will ever explain to me why the flag with lilies, which has its roots in medieval Bosnia, bothered anyone. If lilies are any symbol, they are more Catholic than Muslim, or rather Angevin, absolutely not Muslim symbols if they are any symbols, they are Angevin lilies that exist in heraldry – Grebo told NAP.

He says that in his office, next to the current coat of arms, he also has the flag with lilies.

- The flag with lilies has a foundation, the entire heraldry, the Franciscan coat of arms book, it can be seen. The coat of arms we had with a sword and six lilies was the coat of arms associated with King Tvrtko. And the true Bosnian coat of arms, which can be found in the coat of arms book, has a burgundy background with a crown and an arm bent at the elbow – Grebo said.