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Kosovo

Kosova

Flag and arms of Kosovo, February 2008 - Images by Željko Heimer, 17 February 2008

See also:

Symbols of Kosovo

On 17 February 2008, the Parliament of Kosovo declared independance from Serbia. The independence was not recognized by Serbia, which still considers Kosovo as a part of its national territory.
Symbols for the new country were adopted by the Parliament of Kosovo on the same day. The flag of Kosovo is blue with a yellow geographical map of Kosovo and six white five-pointed stars forming an arch above it. The coat of arms follows the same pattern on a yellow-bordered shield.

Željko Heimer, 17 February 2008

Designer of Kosova's flag and emblem, Muhamer Ibrahimi on Saturday gave away the first copy of the designed flag of the Republic of Kosova to the Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi, congratulating him and the Kosovar government of the new independent state.
[Kosovapress, 23 February 2008]
The new flag of Kosovo was made in Turkey, and brought to Kosovo yesterday by Turkish Airlines.
[Hürriyet, 18 February 2008]

Željko Heimer & Jan Oskar Engene, 27 April 2008

Kosavapress interviewed Muhamer Ibrahimi, the winner of the symbols contest, explaining the meaning of the symbols he proposed (text in Albanian and Serbian).
Translation from the Serbian version:

[...]
Ibrahimi highlighted that the idea to design and propose it came even before the contest was issued by the Unity Team*.
"I started to work before the contest that prescribed certain criteria and based on these criteria I was working on the flag and the coat of arms", said Ibrahimi.
"The blue colour in the flag of the state of Kosovo represents the goals of the people of Kosovoa for the Euro-Atlantic** integration. The golden yellow colours, in fact the map on blue field, represents Kovoso as a rich and peaceful country, while the white stars above the map represent the communities living in Kosovo. There are larger and smaller communities, but they are all equal in the new state of Kosovo***", said Ibrahimi.

*The Kosovo Unity Team is a working group of the Kosovo Assembly that formally issued the contest.
** Euro-Atlantic institutions is the term used in political speech of this wider region to encompass all various Eruopean institutions and institutions like NATO encompassing the USA and Canada as well.
***The six communities are Albanians and another five communities with guaranteed representation in the Assembly: Serb, RAE (Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian), Bosniak, Turkish and Goran [Macedonian] communities.

Željko Heimer, 19 February 2008

Color specifications

The colour specifications of the flag and arms are as follows (KosovaThanksYou website, 26 January 2009):

In the past few months there has been some confusion about the exact colors of the Kosovar flag. Confusion stems from conversion between CMYK and RGB color formats, which was not done properly.
The colors on the Government Website are in CMYK format that have been converted to RGB without corrections. This makes the Kosova outline look darker on the screen. The correct RGB version of the flag as well as the color values are listed below.
At this point, this specification remains the only Kosovo flag color standard publicly available.
Republic of Kosovo flag color codes:
- Background [field]: R:24, G:56, B:132 (or #183884)
- Kosova [map]: R:219, G:187, B:91 (or #DBBB5B)
- Stars: R: 255, G: 255, B: 255 (or #FFFFFF)

Evan, 9 February 2009

The Office of the Prime Minister of Kosovo has a pdf document illustrating the flag in CMYK colors: http://www.kryeministri-ks.net/repository/docs/flamuri_republikes_se_kosoves.pdf
Zoltan Horvath, 24 June 2024

Other sources for colors:

The Olympic Flag Manuals (2008 and 2012) are not relevant in case of Kosovo, because Kosovo became full member of the IOC on 9 December 2014 and athletes marched under Kosovan flag first time at Olympic Games in Rio in 2016. The Rio 2016 Flags and Anthems Manual illustrates flag of Kosovo, but doesn’t give any color specification.

The Album des Pavillons 2000 [pay00] (Corr. No. 5.) gives approximate colors in Pantone and CMYK systems:
Blue: - CMYK 78-55-0-35
Yellow: Pantone 281c CMYK 0-20-62-18

Vexilla Mundi gives colors in Pantone system:
PMS 2133C (blue), PMS 7407C (gold), and PMS White.

Wikipedia refers to legislations, gives a construction sheet, and gives the following color values:
Blue: CMYK 100-80-0-0; Hexadecimal (Government) #244AA5; Unofficial: #183884
Gold: CMYK 0-20-60-20; Hexadecimal (Government) #D0A650; Unofficial: #DBBB5B
White: CMYK 0-0-0-0; Hexadecimal (Government) #FFFFFF; Unofficial: #FFFFFF
(Unofficial color values based on this page: https://www.kosovothanksyou.com/news/?p=258)

Flag Color Codes gives the following color values:
Blue: Hex #244AA5; RGB 36-74-165; CMYK 78-55-0-35; Pantone 2133 C; RAL 5019
White: Hex #FFFFFF; RGB 255-255-255; CMYK 0-0-0-0; Pantone NA; RAL NA
Gold: Hex #D0A650; RGB 208-166-80; CMYK 70-20-62-18; Pantone 7407 C; RAL 1034

Zoltan Horvath, 24 June 2024

Vertical flag

image by Zoltan Horvath, 24 June 2024

The vertical flag is simply turned clockwise of national flag.
https://www.instagram.com/hashimthaciofficial/
Zoltan Horvath, 24 June 2024

Kosovo Security Force

Flag of KSF, current and former versions - Images by Zoltán Horváth, 26 January 2011

After unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo, the UÇK was dissolved, and a new paramilitary force has been established.
The Kosovo Security Force (KSF; in Albanian, Forca e Sigurisë së Kosovës, FSK; official website) is a new, professional, multi-ethnic, lightly armed and uniformed Security Force that is subject to democratic, civilian control. The mission of the KSF is to conduct crisis response operations in Kosovo and abroad; civil protection operations within Kosovo; and to assist the civil authorities in responding to natural disasters and other emergencies. Such duties will include search and rescue operations; explosive ordnance disposal; the control and clearance of hazardous materials; fire-fighting; and other humanitarian assistance tasks.

The first flag of KSF (photo) is based on the emblem of KSF, a dark blue and yellow shield with a rampant lion and a six-pointed star.
Sometime in mid of 2009, a new flag (photo) started to be used. The flag has a camouflage-like blue background, formed of six-pointed stars (photo). The KSF shield is placed in the center of the flag. The proportions of both flags are 2:3.

Zoltán Horváth, 21 January 2011