Flag of Greece Byzantine double-headed eagle (see below), the cross, depictions of saints and various mottoes. The Christian Greek sipahi cavalry employed by the Ottoman Sultan were allowed to use their own, clearly Christian flag, when within Epirus and the Peloponnese. It featured the classic blue cross on a white field with the picture of St. George slaying the dragon, and was used from 1431 until 1639, when this privilege was greatly limited by the Sultan. Similar flags were used by other local leaders. The closest to a Greek "national" flag during Ottoman rule was the so-called "Graeco-Ottoman flag" (Γραικοθωμανική παντιέρα), a civil
Flag of the Republic of Macedonia Flag of the Republic of Macedonia The national flag of the Republic of Macedonia () depicts a stylised yellow sun on a red field, with eight broadening rays extending from the centre to the edge of the field. It was created by Prof. Miroslav Grčev and was adopted on 5 October 1995 after a one-year economic blockade imposed by Greece in order to force the Republic of Macedonia to remove the Vergina Sun, a symbol from the gravesite of the ancient Kings of Macedon from the flag, as Greece considered it a Greek symbol. The new eight-rayed sun represents "the