South Ossetia is a region in the North

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

that is under the effective control of the self-declared Republic of South Ossetia–the State of Alania but recognized by most of the international community as part of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. The Government of Georgia has established a

Provisional Administration of South Ossetia The Provisional Administration of South Ossetia ( ka, სამხრეთ ოსეთის დროებითი ადმინისტრაცია, ''Samxret Osetis droebiti administ’racia'') is an administrative body that Georgi ...

which it considers to be the legal government of South Ossetia. Both entities have adopted emblems to represent themselves which are of a similar design. The emblems consist of a red disc featuring a

Caucasian leopard ''Panthera pardus tulliana'' is a leopard subspecies native to the Iranian Plateau and surrounding areas encompassing Turkey, the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Iraq, Iran, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and possibly Pakistan. Since 2016, i ...

with seven white mountains in the background. The blazon is "disc ''

gules In heraldry, gules () is the tincture with the colour red. It is one of the class of five dark tinctures called "colours", the others being azure (blue), sable (black), vert (green) and purpure (purple). In engraving, it is sometimes depict ...

'', a leopard ''passant'' ''or'' spotted sable on a ground ''or'' with a background of seven mountains ''

argent In heraldry, argent () is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it. In engravings and line drawings, regions to b ...

''." The mountains symbolize the Ossetian landscape, while the leopard is an iconic inhabitant of the Caucasus mountains.

Republic of South Ossetia

The coat of arms of the

Republic of South Ossetia South Ossetia, ka, სამხრეთი ოსეთი, ( , ), officially the Republic of South Ossetia – the State of Alania, is a partially recognised landlocked state in the South Caucasus. It has an officially stated populat ...

were adopted on 19 May 1999 by the

Parliament of South Ossetia The Parliament of South Ossetia is the unicameral legislature of the partially recognized Republic of South Ossetia. The 34 members of parliament are elected using a mixed system of Party-list proportional representation (17) and single-member di ...

. The design is based on Vakhushti Bagrationi's "Banner of Ossetia" which dates from 1735. Around the shield, the name of the country is written in Ossetian (''Республикӕ Хуссар Ирыстон'') above and in Russian (''Республика Южная Осетия'') below.

Provisional Administration of South Ossetia

The

was established by the Government of Georgia April in 2007. It uses an emblem depicting a Caucasian leopard and mountainous landscape without a surrounding legend.https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064262576682 This emblem is identical to the emblem used by the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania in Russia. File:Emblem of the Provisional Administration of South Ossetia.svg, Emblem of the Provisional Administration of South Ossetia

Historical emblems

Between 1922 and 1990, South Ossetia was an autonomous oblast of the

Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (Georgian SSR; ka, საქართველოს საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა, tr; russian: Грузинская Советская Соц� ...

known as the

South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast The South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast (russian: Юго-Осетинская автономная область, ka, სამხრეთ ოსეთის ავტონომიური ოლქი, os, Хуссар Ирыстоны ав� ...

. As an autonomous oblast, it didn't have its own coat of arms, instead the Emblem of the Georgian SSR was used for official purposes. File:Historical Banner of Ossetia (by Vakhushti of Kartli).jpg, Historical Banner of Ossetia by

Vakhushti of Kartli Vakhushti ( ka, ვახუშტი, tr) (1696–1757) was a Georgian royal prince (''batonishvili''), geographer, historian and cartographer. His principal historical and geographic works, ''Description of the Kingdom of Georgia'' and the ''Ge ...

(1735) File:Coat of arms of Tiflis Governorate 1878.svg, Coat of arms of the

Tiflis Governorate The Tiflis Governorate was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire with its administrative center in Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi). In 1897, it constituted 44,607 sq. kilometres in area and had a population ...

(1878–1917)

References

{{Coats of arms of Europe

Ossetia Ossetia ( , ; os, Ирыстон or , or ; russian: Осетия, Osetiya; ka, ოსეთი, translit. ''Oseti'') is an ethnolinguistic region located on both sides of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, largely inhabited by the Ossetians. ...

Republic of South Ossetia

Provisional Administration of South Ossetia

Historical emblems

See also

References