Flag of Georgia (country)

Georgia

Name	Five Cross Flag
Use	Civil and state flag, civil and state ensign
Proportion	2:3
Adopted	January 24–25, 2004
Design	White rectangle, with in its central portion a large red cross that extends to the edge of the flag. In the four corners there are four Bolnur-Katskhuri crosses of the same color.
Variant flag of Georgia
Use	Presidential Standard
Design	Flag of the President of Georgia
Variant flag of Georgia
Design	Flag of the Minister of Defence
Variant flag of Georgia
Design	Flag of the Chief of the General Staff
Variant flag of Georgia
Design	War Flag of Georgia

The flag of Georgia (Georgian: საქართველოს სახელმწიფო დროშა; sakartvelos sakhelmtsʼipo drosha), also known as the Five Cross Flag (Georgian: ხუთჯვრიანი დროშა; khutjvriani drosha), is one of the national symbols of the Republic of Georgia. Originally a banner of the medieval Kingdom of Georgia, it was brought back to popular use in the late 20th and early 21st centuries during periods of the Georgian national revival. Prior to obtaining its official status in 2004, the flag was popularized by the United National Movement and served as one of the most recognizable symbols of the Rose Revolution.

The current flag was used by the Georgian patriotic movement following the country's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. By the late 1990s, the design had become widely known as the Georgian historical national flag as vexillologists had pointed out the red-on-white Jerusalem cross shown as the flag of Tbilisi in a 14th-century map by Domenico and Francesco Pizzigano.

A majority of Georgians, including the influential Catholicos-Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, supported the restoration of the flag and in 1999 the Parliament of Georgia passed a bill to change the flag. However, it was not endorsed by the President, Eduard Shevardnadze. It was adopted in the early 2000s by the main opposition party, the United National Movement led by Mikheil Saakashvili, as a symbol of popular resistance to Shevardnadze's rule.