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Kosovo (Province, Serbia): Flag proposals

Proposals shown at the Kosovo Art Gallery exhibition
DioGuardi's proposal

See also:

Proposals shown at the Kosovo Art Gallery exhibition

The website of the Kosova Art Gallery , within the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of Kosovo, presents an exhibition of "Symbols of Kosovo", held in the Gallery from 27 February 2007 until, presumably, the next exhibition opened on 9 March 2007. Since the official contest for the new symbols was issued by the Assembly of Kosovo only in June 2007, these proposals, I guess, would not be disqualified per se, as the contest rules prohibit publication after the sending of the proposals, not before. One would guess that at least some of the artists shown there sent their ideas to the contest as well.
The proposals, as originally displayed on the website of the Kosova Art Gallery (page no longer online) are shown on separate pages of the FOTW website (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4).

Thomas Sokolowski & Željko Heimer, 19 January 2008

DioGuardi's proposal

DioGuardi's flag proposal for Kosovo - Image by Ivan Sache, 7 February 2007

Joseph J. DioGuardi is the founding President of the Albanian American Civic League (AACL), founded in 1989. His flag proposal is described and illustrated on the Huliq website with the misleading title of "The New Flag of Kosovo".
The flag is in proportion 3:5, with six red and five white stripes and a square red canton charged with the Albanian double-headed eagle. The canton covers seven stripes in height. The flag was presented by its designer in Priština in July 2006, as follows:

I believe that this flag will capture the heart and spirit of the Albanian people all over the world, especially the Albanian citizens of the new state of Kosova. It contains the national Albanian symbol (the double-headed eagle) and the national colors (black and red). It also reflects Kosova's historic connection to the Albanians of Montenegro, Macedonia, the Preševo Valley, Chameria [Southern Epirus, mostly part of Greece] (the Chams and Arvanites), and Italy (the Arbëresh [DioGuardi is himself of Arbëresh origin. His late father, who immigrated to America in 1929, was an ethnic Albanian who was born in Greci, the oldest of the 51 Albanian-speaking villages in Italy and the only one in which Skenderbeg set foot]), who are represented by the five white stripes. The white stripes on red also serve to remind us of the important role that the United States has played by recognizing the State of Albania after World War led by president Woodrow Willson, leading NATO against Slobodan Milosević in 1999, and working today to gain international recognition for Kosova's independence.

Ivan Sache, 7 February 2007

This flag was seen in real during the visit of President of the USA G.W. Bush in Albania, June 2007.
It seems that this particular flag was not really approved by the Albanian authorities. The Daylife Plateform shows a photo by Visar Kryeziu, with the folowing comment:

Albanian Special Forces carries a modified U.S. flag, which was confiscated from an Albanian civilian, in Tirana Sunday June 10, 2007. The flag, which was considered disrespectful to the U.S. flag as the Albanian eagle from the Albanian flag replaced the stars on the U.S. flag, was disallowed for the celebrations. U.S. [...]

Milan Jovanović & Ivan Sache, 28 February 2009

A similar flag was seen on a black and white photograph, captioned as "Proposal for the new American-Albanian flag? Or Albania, the new, 53rd American State?"

Albert Kirsch & Ivan Sarajčić, 12 October 2007