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Comoros (1975 - 1978)

Last modified: 2019-01-11 by bruce berry
Keywords: socialism | stars: 4 (diamond) | stars: 4 (square) | star: 5 points (white) | crescent: points to bottom fly (white) |
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1975 Comoros flag image by Vincent Morley, 29 Mar 1997 See also:

About the flag

On 03 August 1975 a leftist coup d’etat led by Ali Soilih took power in the Comoros. A new flag was adopted on 12 November 1975 and was in use until 13 May 1978.
Jaume Ollé, 30 Mar 1997

According to an article in The Flag Bulletin (No. 174) [tfb],  in 1975 the top two thirds of the flag became red to symbolise the socialist ideology of the new regime. The positioning of the crescent and stars was altered so that the crescent now faced the bottom left of the flag with the stars grouped in a diamond between its horns.
Stuart Notholt, 22 May 1997

This design was adopted shortly after independence in 1975.  The symbolism is the same as in the former flag although one of the four main islands, Mayotte, remained under French rule. My source for this image is Flags by Eric Inglefield [ing79], where the proportions are stated to be 5:7.
Vincent Morley, 29 Mar 1997

The CHUWA party used a flag similar to the 1975 Comorian national flag (horizontally divided red-green, 2:1) but with a thicker crescent and the four white stars placed vertically.
Ivan Sache, 18 Jul 2002

Most sources confirm the flag as red over green with the stars forming a diamond (Smith [smi76], Lux-Wurm [lux01], and a Comorian post stamp). Lux-Wurm [lux01], however, says the flag was in proportion of 2:3 and  not 5:7.
Ivan Sache, 20 Apr 2002
 


Erroneous depictions

Green over red

wrong 1975 KM flag image by Ivan Sache, 20 Apr 2002

Hervé Calvarin in Comores: un nouveau drapeau pour la réintégration d’Anjouan [clv02] shows a weird flag, which might be the one reported by William Crampton in The World of Flags (1990) [cra90]. This flag is 5:7, horizontally divided green over red (2:1), with a white crescent pointing to the lower fly in canton and four white stars “inside” the crescent, forming a square, as illustrated above.
Ivan Sache, 20 Apr 2002

The description above contradicts Crampton [cra90]; it would appear that Mr Crampton has erred.
Stuart Notholt, 22 May 1997

White fimbriation

wrong 1975 KM flag image by Ivan Sache and António Martins, 02 Dec 2005

These stamps (SG 182/83 and 198/99), both depict a flag with a red field occupying the upper 2/3 of the flag and a red field beneath. On the red part, near the hoist, is a white crescent with two rows of two five-pointed white stars in each row. The red and green fields are apparently separated by a thin white stripe.
Ron Lahav, 01 Feb 2005