Edil Aidarbekov

Edil Aidarbekovich Aidarbekov (Kyrgyz: Эдил Айдарбеков; Russian: Эдиль Айдарбеков) was born on 21 February 1947 in the village of Bosteri in the Issyk-Kul district of the Issyk-Kul region, on the northern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul in the Kirghiz SSR.

He studied at the architecture and construction faculty of the Frunze Polytechnic Institute in the republic's capital, graduating in 1970. From 1970 to 1972 he did his military service in the Soviet Army.

On his return from the army Aidarbekov worked as an architect in the leading design institutes of Frunze, the state design institute Kyrgyzgiprostroy and the city institute Frunzegorproekt. Russian Wikipedia records that he also served as architect to the city executive committee of Cholpon-Ata on Lake Issyk-Kul. In 1976 he was admitted to the Union of Architects of the USSR.

His professional work was closely tied to the design and construction of residential, public and civic buildings, both standard designs and individual projects. Projects he worked on included theatre workshops in Frunze (1974), an experimental base of the Academy of Sciences of the Kirghiz SSR (1975), shops built into the series 105 standard apartment blocks (1975) and a nine storey residential building at the intersection of Sovetskaya and Toktogul streets in Frunze (1976).

After Kyrgyzstan declared independence in August 1991, a state commission chaired by the writer Kazat Akmatov organised an open competition for a new national flag. Aidarbekov said later that the work took almost a year: several dozen entries were sent in, the commission chose five, and the authors were then advised to combine their efforts. His group, with the artist Bekbosun Jaichybekov, the architect Mamatbek Sydykov and the philologist Sabyr Iptarov, had proposed a red tunduk and radiant sun on a blue field; the artist Jusup Mataev's group had worked on other variants. Blue was dropped after representatives of the southern regions objected that it was a colour of mourning there, and red was chosen because the epic of Manas says the hero led his armies under a red banner. According to the flag historians of Vexillographia, the idea of drawing the tunduk not flat but as if in relief, with curved elements, belonged to Aidarbekov.

The Supreme Council adopted the final design on 3 March 1992: a red field with a golden sun of 40 evenly spaced rays, standing for the 40 tribes united by Manas, and inside it the red tunduk of a Kyrgyz yurt, a symbol of the family home, unity and the world. The flag was raised over Government House in Bishkek days later.

In late 2023, when President Sadyr Japarov proposed straightening the flag's wavy rays because foreigners compared the sun to a sunflower, Aidarbekov spoke in favour. He told Kaktus.media that the original master model had burned in the fire at the White House and that many flags in use had been drawn incorrectly, and said that straight rays kept the authors' idea intact. Parliament passed the change in December 2023.

In his last years he taught as a senior lecturer at the Kyrgyz State University of Construction, Transport and Architecture named after N. Isanov in Bishkek, passing on his knowledge and experience to young architects.

Aidarbekov kept his private life out of public view, and details of his family have not been widely published. The official obituary offered condolences to his relatives, colleagues and all who knew him, and recalled his high personal qualities as well as his professional achievements.

Edil Aidarbekov died on 18 October 2026, in his 79th year. His death was first reported that evening by the news agency 24.kg, and the Ministry of Culture of Kyrgyzstan announced it as the loss of one of the authors of the state flag. A cause of death was not made public.

On 19 October the state news agency Kabar published an obituary from the Presidential Administration signed by President Sadyr Japarov, Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Adylbek Kasymaliev and other senior officials. It said that Kyrgyz culture and architecture had suffered an irreparable loss, and that he would remain in the history of Kyrgyz culture and architecture as a talented architect, a professional devoted to his work and a man who made a weighty contribution to creating one of the country's main state symbols.

Aidarbekov's lasting legacy is the flag of Kyrgyzstan, which has flown over the country and at the United Nations since 1992 and whose tunduk and sun remain at the heart of the national symbols after the 2023 straightening of the rays. He was one of a small group of architects, artists and scholars whose work gave the newly independent republic its emblem.

His contribution was recognised by the state with the Dank medal in 2011 and the title of Honoured Worker of Culture of the Kyrgyz Republic in 2022. Through his buildings in Bishkek and his teaching at the Isanov university, his influence also carries on in the city's architecture and in the architects he trained.