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Karpathos (Municipality, Greece)

Κάρπαθος

Flag of Karpathos - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 25 October 2013

Presentation of Karpathos
Flag of Karpathos
Former municipality of Olympos

See also:

Presentation of Karpathos

The municipality of Karpathos (6,226 inhabitants in 2011, 32,410 ha) was formed in the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the former municipalities of Karpathos (5,670 inh.) and Olympos (Όλυμπος, 761 inh.).

Karpathos is the second largest of the Greek Dodecanese islands, in the southeastern Aegean Sea.
The island was in ancient and medieval times closely connected with Rhodes. Karpathians fought with Sparta in the Peloponnesian War in 431 BC and lost their independence to Rhodes in 400 BC. In 42 BC the island fell to Rome. After the division of the Roman Empire the island joined the Byzantine Empire. By 1304 Karpathos was given as fief by the Emperor to the Genoese corsairs Andrea and Lodovico Moresco, but in 1306 it fell under Andrea Cornaro, a member of the noble Venetian Cornaro family. The Cornaro controlled Karpathos until 1538, when it finally passed into the possession of the Ottoman Turks.
In the years 1821-22, during the Greek War of Independence, the island could free itself, but afterward it fell again under the Ottoman rule. The Ottoman rule ended on 12 May 1912, when the Italians conquered the island, together with the whole Dodecanese, during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-12. With the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 Karpathos joined the other islands of the Dodecanese in the Italian possession of the Isole Italiane dell'Egeo, and was ceded by Italy to Greece with the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947.
The island formally joined the Greek State on 7 March 1948, together with the other Dodecanese islands.

Olivier Touzeau, 25 October 2013

Flag of Karpathos

The flag of Karpathos (photo; Kokkonis website) is blue with the municipal emblem. The new municipality uses the same flag and emblem as the former one.
The emblem feature dolphins and the letters "ΠΟΣ" - for Poseidon -, taken from an ancient coin (photo), and eight yellow disks below, representing the eight municipal units included in the former municipality of Karpathos.

Olivier Touzeau & Paraskevas Renesis, 25 October 2013

Former municipality of Olympos

Flag of Olympos - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 25 October 2013

Olympos is located in the northern part of the island. It includes Saria (Σαρία) Island and the uninhabited islets of Astakida (Αστακίδα), Astakidopoulo (Αστακιδόπουλο), Divounia (Διβούνια), and Chamili (Χαμηλή).

The flag of Olympos was approved by the Community Council in a special meeting held on 6 June 2010. Accordingly, it was in use as a municipality flag only during six monthes.
The flag, designed by Anthony G. Halkias, was recommended to the Council on 16 June 2009 by George N. Tsampanaki (official document).

The flag (photo, photo) is in 2:3 proportions, horizontally divided sky blue-yellow-blue. The design refers to the flags of Regas Pheraios and of Alexander Ypsilanti, fighters and heroes of Greek Independence.
Sky blue stands for the color that dominated for generations the form of the outer cloak of the traditional women's costume of Olympos, an important element in popular culture and society of the village.
Yellow corresponds to sunlight, a symbol of God Apollo, protector of ancient Rhodes, the head of which was on the flag (white cross on a blue background) adopted for the Aegean State by the Representatives of the Congress of the Dodecanese in Patmos in 1912.
Blue corresponds to the dominant color of the Greek flag, as determined by a decision of the Revolutionary National Assembly in Epidaurus in 1822. According to the popular interpretation, blue represents on the one hand the Greek sea and islands and on the other hand the colored islands.
The emblem consists of the sketch of a paleochristianic column - the same as in a xomonastiron altar in Olympos countryside. The colum, in white marble, is placed in a wreath made on the left of an olive branch and on the right of a laurel branch.

Olivier Touzeau, 25 October 2013