NDTV

Friday, September 3, 2010

Baku: Azerbaijan's president rose what authorities have described as the world's largest flag in the capital, Baku.

Ilham Aliyev hoisted the massive banner after inaugurating the new National Flag Square in the capital on Wednesday.

Local authorities said the flag, measuring 70 by 35 metres (230 by 115 feet), was hoisted on the world's tallest unsupported flagpole, which stands at 162 metres (531 feet).

The pole's height has been recognised by the Guinness book of Worlds.

AP Television has no independent means of verifying the Azerbaijani claims regarding the flag's record measurements.

At a ceremony marking the inauguration of the square, Aliyev said he could foresee the day when the blue, red and green flag of Azerbaijan could fly freely over all of the nation's territory.

He alluded to the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The landlocked region lies within Azerbaijan, but since the end of a six-year separatist war in 1994 it has been under the control of Armenian troops and ethnic Armenian forces.

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