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Kosovo (Province, Serbia) since the declaration of independence (2008)

Kosovo i Metohija, Kosova

The declaration of independence of Kosovo
Flag and arms of Kosovo adopted after the declaration of independence
Meaning of the flag of Kosovo

See also:

The declaration of independence of Kosovo

On 17 February 2008, the Parliament of Kosovo declared independance from Serbia. The independence was not recognized by Serbia, which still consider Kosovo as apart of its national territory.
As of 7 August 2008, 45 out of the 192 members of the United Nations have officially recognized Kosovo as an independent state, as follows:
- February 2008: Costa Rica, United States, France, Afghanistan, Albania, Turkey, United Kingdom, Australia, Senegal, Germany, Latvia, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Luxembourg, Peru, Belgium, Poland, Switzerland , Austria and Ireland;
- March 2008: Sweden, Netherlands, Iceland, Slovenia, Finland, Japan, Canada, Monaco, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, Liechtenstein, South Korea and Norway;
- April 2008: Marshall Islands, Nauru and Burkina Faso;
- May 2008: Lithuania, San Marino, Czech Republic and Liberia;
- June 2008: Sierra Leone;
- August 2008: Colombia, Belize and Malta;
- September 2008: Samoa;
- October 2008: Portugal, Montenegro, Macedonia, United Arab Emirates and Malaysia.

The recognition texts are available on the KosovaThanksYou website.

Jan Mertens & Ivan Sache, 1 November 2008

Flag and arms of Kosovo adopted after the declaration of independence

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

Symbols for the new country were adopted by the Parliament of Kosovo on 17 February 2008. 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

Quoting Kosovapress, 23 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.

Željko Heimer, 24 February 2008

According to Hürriyet, 18 February 2008, "the new flag of Kosovo was made in Turkey, and brought to Kosovo yesterday by Turkish Airlines."

Jan Oskar Engene, 27 April 2008

Meaning of the flag of Kosovo

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 star 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, I presume, those listed on the website of the Kosovo Assembly, that is, beside Albanians, five other communities with guaranteed representation in the Assembly: Serb, RAE (Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian), Bosniak, Turkish and Goran [Macedonian] communities.

Željko Heimer, 19 February 2008