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Flags of the World

Page created: 15th December 2007 Last updated: 7th February 2018	This page is under construction! Links and images might be missing! Data presented on this page may be entirely incorrect!
The FAME is a site devoted to the systematic and scientific study of flags and coats of arms. Such symbols often bear strong political and other messages. Inclusion of those symbols here does not mean that the author supports or approves of the ideas they may stand for.	This site is harvested for the NSK digital archives.

Croatia - Ethnical Minorities

• Bosniaks in Croatia
• Czechs in Croatia
• Ruthenians in Croatia
• Serbs in Croatia
• Italians in Croatia

The ethnical minorities living in Croatia are explicitly mentioned in the Premable of the Contitution of the Republic of Croatia "Serbs, Czechs, Slovaks, Italians, Hungarians, Jews, Germans, Austrians, Ukrainians, Ruthenians and others". The elections for the national parliament (Sabor) provide for the representation for following minorities: Serbs, Hungarians, Italians, Czecks, Slovaks, Austrians, Bulgarians, Germans, Poles, Roma, Romanians, Ruthenians, Russians, Turks, Ukrainians, Valachians, Jews, Albanians, Bosniaks, Montenegrins, Macedonians and Slovenians. On the lower levels these minorities have representations according to their population in the local units. The symbols of the minorities is systematically solved with the Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities (Ustavni zakon o pravima nacionalnih manjina. Narodne novine, 155/2002). It provides for the free use of the national symbols - the coat of arms, the flag and the anthem to be used together with the symbols of the Republic of Croatia (Art. 14). The symbols are adopted by the Coordination of councils of national minority, the highest body of the particular national minorities representations in Croatia, with approval by the Council of the national minorities, the parliamentary institution dealing with issues of the minorities (Art. 33). For the time being only a part of the minorities officialized their symbols in accordance with the law, while others are traditionally using the symbols without the official approval. Some minorities do not use symbols at all.
In several cases the prescribed flags of minorities differ from their mother country flags only in the ratio (1:2 in Croatia while 2:3 in their countries, typically), but this is not meant to provide differentiation between the two flags, rather it is a manner of making the flag equal in size with the national flag of Croatia with which it is regularly hoisted.
According to an article in Vjesnik (21.08.2007, p. 4) the only two minorities that approved their symbols in accordance with the 2002 legislation are Serbs and Czechs by that time, although others are expected to do so soon.

• Croatia

Bosniaks in Croatia

1:2

The coat of arms and the flag of Bosniaks in Croatia are basically the same as the coat of arms and the flag of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as used in 1992-1998, and have been since considered as the flag of the Bosniak ethnic community in Bosnia and Herzegovina and abroad. The coat of arms is the histroical coat of arms of Bosnian King Tvrtko azure a bend argent between six fleurs de lis or and the flag is white with the coat of arms in the centre.

Czechs in Croatia

2:3

The flag of the Czechs in Croatia is equal to the Czech national flag: white over red bicolour with a blue triangle next to the hoist reaching to the middle of the flag. The emblem is a shield with three vertical fields, red, white and blue with red-white chequered base and a silver lion overall. Atop the shield is a yellow ribbon inscribed "Češi v Republice Chorvatsko/Česi u Republici Hrvatskoj".

Ruthenians in Croatia

1:2

The coat of arms of Ruthenians in Croatia is per pale azure three bars or and argent a bear rampant maroon and the chief compony gules and argent. This is the traditional arms of Ruthenia (sometimes also called Subcarpathian Ukraine) as established in 1920 for one of the constitutional parts of Czeckoslovakia, nowdays used by Ruthenians world wide; topped with the red and white squares indicating their Croatian homeland. While the general Ruthenian flag is a tricolour of blue over white over red, where the blue stripe is of the double width, in many countries (e.g. Ukraine, Serbia) the Ruthenian national minorities use the host country national flag with the Ruthenian coat of arms in the centre of it. Therefore the flag of Ruthenians in Croatia is a red-white-blue tricolour with the coat of arms in the centre of it.

Serbs in Croatia

1:2

The flag of the Serbs in Croatia is a tricolour of red over blue over white without any symbols. The coat of arms was not adopted.

Italians in Croatia

1:2~

The flag used by Italians mostly in Istria, Kvarner and in Zadar is proclaimed by the Statutes of the Italian Union, organization of Italians in Croatia and Slovenia, the same as the flag of the mother country, the Repulic of Italia. In practice, the flag is used in ratio 1:2, to match the ratio of other flags hoisted at the same time, typically the flags of the Republic of Croatia and the local flags of county, city or community. Although this flag was not officially approved in accordance with the 2002 legislation, it is used in cities and communities with significant Italian population together with the national and local flags as a matter of course since the establishment of the Republic of Croatia. This practice was introduced after World War II, although in that period until 1990 the flags included the yellow fimbriated five-pointed red star in the middle.

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Flags of the World