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Albania: Ottoman rule (XVth century-1912)

Flag used at sea by non-Muslim Albanians
Flag used at sea by Muslim Albanians
Flag used in the struggle for autonomy

See also:

Flag used at sea by non-Muslim Albanians

by Željko Heimer

In the first quarter of the XIXth century, some Ottoman provinces where allowed to use their own flags for civil or merchant vessels. This was the case of Albania where the non-Muslim population used a red flag with a central black stripe, probably in proportion 2:3.

Jaume Ollé, 15 June 1996

Flag used at sea by Muslim Albanians

by Jorge Candeias

The Muslim Albanians used the horizontally divided red-blue-red flag allocated by the Ottomans to the Greeks, with a white crescent added in the middle of the flag.

Jaume Ollé, 15 June 1996

Flag used in the struggle for autonomy

by Jaume Ollé (reconstructed flag)

Albania has been a Turkish possession since the XVth century. In the XIXth century, the Albanian independentist circles used a red flag with the Byzantine double-headed eagle, supposedly used by the Albanian medieval hero Skanderbeg, and never forgotten in Albania.

This flag was also used by the Albanian chief Isa Boletin, when he rebelled against Turkey in 1910. When the Autonomous Government was proclaimed in Mirditë in June 1911, this was also the flag used.

Jaume Ollé, 15 July 1996