Flag of Kosovo
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| Use | National flag |
|---|---|
| Proportion | 5:7 (1:1.4 in the law) |
| Adopted | 17 February 2008 |
| Design | A blue field charged with a map of Kosovo in gold, surmounted by an arc of six, white five-pointed stars, in the centre |
| Designed by | Muhamer Ibrahimi |
The flag of the Republic of Kosovo was adopted by the Assembly of Kosovo immediately following the declaration of independence of the Republic of Kosovo from Serbia on 17 February 2008. The flag is the result of an international design competition, organised by the United Nations-backed Kosovo Unity Team, which attracted almost one thousand entries. The now-used design is a variant of one proposal designed by Muhamer Ibrahimi. It shows six white stars in an arc above a golden map of Kosovo on a blue field. The stars symbolise Kosovo's six major ethnic groups.
Before the declaration of independence, Kosovo was under the administration of the United Nations and used the UN flag for official purposes. The Serbian and Albanian populations had used their own national flags since the Socialist Yugoslavia period. The Serbs use a red, blue and white tricolor, which forms the basis of the current flag of Serbia. The Albanian population have used the flag of Albania since the 1960s as their nationality flag. Both flags can still be seen and used within Kosovo.
The flag of Kosovo has a blue background, charged with a map of Kosovo and six stars. The stars are officially meant to symbolise Kosovo's six major ethnic groups:Albanians, Serbs, Turks, Gorani, Romani (often grouped with the Ashkali and Egyptians) and Bosniaks. Unofficially, the stars are sometimes said to represent the six regions, which according to Albanian ultra nationalist ideology, make up Greater Albania: Albania, Kosovo, western parts of the Republic of Macedonia, parts of northern Greece, parts of Montenegro and Preševo Valley in southern Serbia. The flag of Kosovo resembles that of Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of colors and shapes used (white stars and yellow shape of the country on a blue field). The flag is unusual among national flags in using a map as a design element; the Flag of Cyprus is the only other to do so. The ratio of the flag was announced during the contest as 2:3, however with the passage of a diplomatic protocol law in Kosovo in April 2009, the ratio was set as 1:1.4 (5:7 when put in whole numbers). The colors and construction of the Kosovo flag have not yet been defined; however, an official government document does give the colors of the flag using CMYK. The unofficial RGB values of the flag have been manually extracted since 2009. The use of the Kosovo flag is regulated by the law: "Law on the Use of Kosovo State Symbols". However, the Serbian Government objects to the use of the Kosovo flag at international meetings and gatherings.
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