The Second Syrian Republic—officially the Syrian Republic from 1950 to 1958 and the Syrian Arab Republic from 1961 to 1963—succeeded the First Syrian Republic that had become de facto independent in April 1946 from the French Mandate. The Second Republic was founded on the Syrian Constitution of 1950, which was suspended from 1953 to 1954 under Adib Shishakli's strongmanship, and later when Syria joined with the Republic of Egypt in forming the United Arab Republic in 1958. The Second Republic resumed when Syria withdrew from the union in 1961. In 1963, the Syrian Ba'athist Party came to power in a bloody military coup, which laid foundations for the political structure in Syria for the next decades.

The green, white, black and red flag is the first flag of the Syrian Arab Republic and with the shortest usage, that being from 1961 to 1963. It is also the flag of the Syrian Opposition during the ongoing Syrian civil war.