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Lithuania

Vilnius International Airport is the largest airport in Lithuania, 91st busiest airport in Europe (EU’s 100 largest airports).

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Vilnius International Airport

It served 3.8 million passengers in 2016. Other international airports include Kaunas International Airport, Palanga International Airport and Šiauliai International Airport. Kaunas International Airport is also a small commercial cargo airport which started regular commercial cargo traffic in 2011.

Flag of Lithuania:

The flag of Lithuania consists of a horizontal tricolor of yellow, green, and red.

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Flag of Lithuania

It was adopted on 25 April 1918 during Lithuania’s first period of independence (in the 20th century) from 1918 to 1940, which ceased with the occupation first by Soviet Russia and Lithuania’s annexation into the Soviet Union, and then by Germany (1941–1944). During the post-World War II Soviet occupation, from 1945 until 1989, the Soviet Lithuanian flag consisted first of a generic red Soviet flag with the name of the republic, then changed to the red flag with white and green bands at the bottom.

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Flag of the Lithuanian SSR (1940-1941, 1944–1953)

The flag was then re-adopted on 20 March 1989, almost a year before the re-establishment of Lithuania’s independence and almost three years before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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Flag of the Lithuanian SSR (1953–1988)

The birth of the yellow, green, and red tricolor occurred during a drive by other European republics to change their flags. One example that gave life to the idea of the tricolor was the French blue, white, and red flag adopted after the French Revolution. The only tricolor that existed for Lithuania before the yellow, green, and red flag was a green, white, and red flag used to represent Lithuania Minor.

It is not known who originally suggested the yellow, green, and red colors, but the idea is usually attributed to Lithuanian exiles living elsewhere in Europe or in the United States during the 19th century. These three colors were frequently used in folk weavings and traditional dress. At the Great Seimas of Vilnius of 1905, this flag was favored over the Vytis banner as the flag of the Lithuanian nation.

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Vytis Flag of Lithuania

During 1988, when the Lithuanian movement towards independence was gaining strength, the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet again recognized the tricolor as the national flag, by amending article 168 of the Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the Lithuanian SSR. The flag was defined as rectangular tricolor which consists of three equally sized horizontal stripes: the upper is yellow, the middle is green, the lower is red. This flag was confirmed by the Provisional Constitution of 11 March 1990 № I-10.

After independence from the Soviet Union, the tricolor flag was written into the new Constitution of Lithuania, which was adopted by a referendum in 1992.

The yellow in the flag is meant to symbolize the sun and prosperity, the green is for the forests, the countryside, liberty, and hope, and the red represents the blood and bravery of those who have died for Lithuania.

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