Kyrgyz parliament committee approves bill to amend flag

BISHKEK: The Committee on Constitutional Legislation, State Structure, Judicial and Legal Issues and the Rules of the Jogorku Kenesh has approved making changes to the country’s flag in the second and third readings.

The bill says the wavy yellow rays of a sun on a red field of the current flag give the impression of a sunflower.

However, the Kyrgyz word for sunflower, “kunkarama,” has a second meaning “dependent.”

The authors of the flag, Bekbosun Zhaichybekov and Zhusup Mataev, also took part in the committee meeting, Kabar News Agency reported.

According to local reports, they shared details about the flag sketches they proposed in 1992.

«In fact, the first version of the state flag was blue sky color, but then people also began to express dissatisfaction, saying that blue is the color of mourning in some southern regions of the country,” Zhaichybekov said.

“Then we developed five new variants of the flag in blue, green, white, gold and red colors. In the end we chose red, no one was against it. As it turned out, red is a sign of power.”

On November 29, the parliament passed the bill on the change to the flag of the country in the first reading with 66 votes in favor and eight against.

The proposal is to change the shape of the rays on the flag of the Kyrgyz Republic from wave-like to a shape clearly reminiscent of the rays of the sun.