I. Mazarakis-Ainian, secretary-general of the Greek Historical and Ethnological Society, embarks on a historical review that goes as far back as the times immediately after the Fall of Constantinople, when a symbol of struggle becomes established through the first demotic songs such as “The Lament of Constantinople”. The author discusses the symbols and colours of the first flags as they evolve from the first years under Ottoman rule until the 1821 Greek War of Independence. He presents specific flags (pennons and banners) of the Armatoloi [Greek irregular soldiers] and the Klephts [bandits, anti-Ottoman insurgents], the flag of Rigas and various flags of the first post-liberation local regimes, to conclude with the establishment of the Greek national flag, the blue-white with the cross.

Eleventh Annual Lecture on Cypriot History and Archaeology