The key facts

  • Anvar Mamajonov called himself the sole author of the flag sketch that won the 1991 contest
  • According to him, the idea of 12 stars belonged to first president Islam Karimov, while the first sketches featured vertical stripes and an image of a monument
  • The artist claims he received no awards for creating the flag and has waited 35 years for recognition

An interview 35 years later

People's Artist and academician Anvar Mamajonov gave an interview to the outlet Daryo, in which he told the story of the creation of the state flag of Uzbekistan, adopted on November 18, 1991. According to him, he had waited 35 years for this conversation: 'At one time I wanted to tell about it myself, but later even that desire faded.' After independence was proclaimed on September 1, 1991, the question of new state symbols arose, and a contest was announced that received more than 200 submissions from residents across the republic — from children to adults, from cotton farmers to builders.

The contest, the commission, and the choice of colors

Mamajonov himself was a member of the contest commission, which included, among others, the artists Bahodir Jalolov and Javlon Umarbekov, and at the same time he submitted his own sketches to the contest. He said that before starting work he studied books on heraldry and the flags of other countries, and the choice fell on green and blue, colors that 'do not tire the eyes' and, in his observation, were not found in the flags of other states. At a session of the Supreme Council attended by first president Islam Karimov, the artist had to explain the meaning of the red color: according to him, Karimov disliked red, associating it with revolution and blood, and Mamajonov replied that among Muslims this color symbolizes protection from the evil eye and bad words.

From vertical stripes to 12 stars

The first sketches, according to the artist, differed from the adopted version: the colors were arranged vertically, and in the center there was an image of an architectural monument of Samarkand or Bukhara — it was removed as 'too heavy' for a flag. In its place, Mamajonov drew a crescent and one star, and then, following a proposal that, he asserts, came from Islam Karimov, he depicted 12 stars. In total, he says, he made about a thousand sketches, working every day, and kept none for himself — all of them, he says, are kept in the archive of the Supreme Council.

Authorship, dimensions, and the absence of an award

The artist disputed the mentions in Wikipedia and other sources of co-authors — Farhod Yuldashev and Zayniddin Fahritdinov — stating that he worked on the flag alone. After the flag was adopted, he reworked the sketch into a document with precise parameters: length 2.5 meters, width 1.25 meters, each colored stripe 40 centimeters, the red lines 2.5 centimeters; the flag is still manufactured to these dimensions. Asked about an award, Mamajonov replied that there was none: 'Everyone congratulated me:

People's Artist and academician Anvar Mamajonov