Co-author of Kyrgyzstan's state flag, architect Edil Aydarbekov, dies at 79

Edil Aydarbekov, an architect and one of the co-authors of the state flag of Kyrgyzstan, died on October 18, 2026, at the age of 79. He held the honorary title of Honored Cultural Worker of the Kyrgyz Republic and had been awarded the Dank medal.

Aydarbekov was born on February 21, 1947, in the village of Bosteri in Issyk-Kul District, Issyk-Kul Region. He graduated in 1970 from the architecture and construction faculty of the Frunze Polytechnic Institute and served in the Soviet Army from 1970 to 1972. He then worked as an architect at the design institutes Kyrgyzgiprostroy and Frunzegorproekt in Frunze. He had been a member of the USSR Union of Architects since 1976.

Aydarbekov took part in drafting the state flag together with Bekbosun Zhaichybekov, Sabyr Iptarov, Zhusup Mataev and Mamatbek Sydykov. The flag was adopted by the Supreme Council of the Kyrgyz Republic on March 3, 1992. In his last years, he worked as a senior lecturer at the Kyrgyz Engineering and Construction Institute named after N. Isanov.