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Erroneous reported flag, 1992 (Uzbekistan)

by Ivan Sache

Background on the flag image

See also:

Uzbekistan

Background on the flag image

In Encyclopaedia Universalis Yearbook 1992, the flag shown for Uzbekistan has not 12 (3+4+5) but 15 stars (4+5+6)! In the 1993 edition, the flag is corrected but the text says that the first version of the Uzbek flag indeed had 15 stars. In this case, the explanation 12 stars = 12 months of the Islamic calendar was either found a posteriori when the number of stars was corrected for an unknown-to-me reason or the cause of the modification of the number of stars.
Ivan Sache, 08 May 2000

The Uzbek flag has had 12 stars since 1991 (source: Law on Flag, #1, adopted 18 November, 1991).
Victor Lomantsov, 10 May 2000

I am really puzzled by the error because the 199(n) Yearbook is usually released in summer 199(n+1), therefore the erroneous flag was included in a book released in 1993, nearly two years after the adoption of the flag!

This is probably a (minor) side-effect of the breakdown of Soviet Union. The breakdown was rather unexpected (or better to say, the Western intelligence services have not been able to anticipate it :-), but once it had occurred, everybody was eager to learn everything about the new countries etc., etc... And it is well known that sometimes you do everything to satisfy eager customers, without really checking the quality of the product!
Ivan Sache, 10 May 2000

Before the official adoption more than 200 proposals were submitted. Some of them were very similar to the current national flag. I remember a flag exactly that the national one but without the red fimbriations, that was erroneously reported as adopted instead the correct one (the image was published in the Spanish magazine Cambio 16). I don't remember the number of stars in this proposal, but it was probably 15 instead 12.
Jaume Ollé 15 May 2000

And I've also seen one such, let's say, "variations": the flag as the one adopted (with the red fimbriations), but with the stars disposed in a circle, a-la European Union. This was published in the newspaper PUBLICO. I can't recall with certainty how many stars where there.
Jorge Candeias, 15 May 2000