Last modified: 2002-06-14 by ivan sache
Keywords: cross (red) | cross (white) | imereti | cross: maltese (red) | tamar |
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White field with an emblem, probably Saint George killing the dragon.
Georgians do not call themselves Georgians but Kartvelebi
and their land Sakartvelo, These names are derived from a
pagan god called Kartlos, said to be the father of all
Georgians.
The foreign name Georgia, used throughout Western Europe, is
mistakenly believed to come from the country's patron saint, St.
George. Actually it is derived from the names Kurj or
Gurj, by which they are known to the Arabs and modern
Persians. Another theory purports that the name comes from the Greek
geo (earth), because when the Greeks came to Georgia they saw
the Georgians working the land. The Classical world knew the
inhabitants of eastern Georgia as Iberians, thus confusing the
geographers of antiquity who thought this name applied only to the
inhabitants of Spain.
Source: Rosen & Foxx The Georgian Republic, 1992
Jarig Bakker, 16 August 2000
Two flags are shown:
Source for all the above flags: Parliament of Georgia website.
Jean-François Blanc, 15 July 1998
I received from Tbilisi, through Maurici Espinar, a color
photocopy of a small flag (table flag) attached. This is supposed
from the Georgian source to be the flag of
Adjaria, but it is most probably only a
party flag or an historical one.
The flag is white with St Georges cross, and, in each square, a cross
that seems to be Tamar cross.
Jaume Ollé, 19 May 2001
Queen Tamar is the personification of Georgia's past glory; she
reigned 1184-1213. I don't know whether that was her flag - it looks
more like a crusader-flag. Tamar's was a great-grandaughter of King
David the Builder (1089-1123), who, assisted by Crusaders, won
Tbilisi and quite a lot of other territories from the Saracens (a
term used quite arbitrarily those days, as he also conquered large
pieces of the Christian kingdom of Armenia).
The Caucasus abounds with myths about Crusaders' descendents still
living there. This flag seems to indicate the hunger of some
Georgians to rectify.something .
Jarig Bakker, 19 May 2001
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