Flag of Armenia

Flag of Armenia
Vexillological symbol :	?
Aspect ratio:	1: 2
Officially accepted:	First time: reintroduced in 1918 : August 24, 1991

The flag of Armenia consists of three horizontal stripes of equal size: red on top, blue in the middle and orange on the bottom.

The current national flag of Armenia was already used in the Democratic Republic of Armenia (1918–1922), but was replaced by the Soviet flag when Armenia was annexed to the USSR from 1922 to 1991 . It remained a symbol of an independent Armenia during demonstrations in the end times of the Armenian SSR in the 1980s and was reintroduced on August 24, 1991.

Appearance and meaning

The national flag at the Armenian embassy in Moscow / Russia

The colors of the flag are interpreted differently. It is commonly assumed that the color red symbolizes the blood that the Armenians had to leave to defend their country, the color blue the sky and the color orange the fertile soil of the country.

The official meaning of the colors is set out in the constitution.

“The red symbolizes the Armenian highlands, the ongoing struggle of the Armenian people for survival, the preservation of the Christian faith, Armenia's independence and freedom. The blue symbolizes the will of the Armenian people to live under a peaceful sky. The orange symbolizes the creative talent and the hard working nature of the Armenian people. "

- Constitution of the Republic of Armenia

According to another interpretation, red stands for freedom and independence and for the blood that was shed in the struggle for it, blue for the landscape and orange for the strength and courage of the people.

Since the Armenian government has not specified the colors of the flag, two different versions are in use. The usual version of the flag consists of more saturated hues, while the rarer color variant looks more bleached. The following table shows the approximate RGB values ​​of the two versions.

National flag design template

	usual variant	rare variant
red	255-0-0 (# FF0000)	216-28-63 (# D81C3F)
blue	0-0-214 (# 0000D6)	85-117-196 (# 5575C4)
orange	255-177-0 (# FFB100)	239-107-0 (# EF6B00)

history

There is no resemblance between the ancient flag of Armenia and the current three-color flag. The ancient flags depicted a dragon, an eagle, or some mysterious object of God (rarely a lion). The flags were tied to the end of a pole and led the armies into battle. With the advent of Christianity, the Armenian kingdom adopted many different flags from different dynasties. For example, the flag of the Artaxian dynasty featured two eagles facing each other, with a flower between them, on a red background.

After Armenia was partitioned between the Persian and Ottoman Empires, the idea of ​​an Armenian flag disappeared for some time. Even so, this idea was taken up again in 1885 when the Armenian fraternity of Paris wanted to celebrate Victor Hugo's funeral with a national flag. They asked a priest of the Armenian Catholic Church , Father Ghevont Alishan , to design a new national flag. Alischan's first draft was already very similar to today's flag: a horizontal tricolor . However, it was more like an upside-down variation of today's Bulgarian flag . The top stripe was red and should represent the first Sunday of Easter (called "Red" Sunday). The green stripe symbolized the "green" Sunday. The white stripe has been set arbitrarily to complete the tricolor. While Alishan was in France, he designed a second flag, which is now known as the "Nationalist Armenian Flag". It was also a tricolor, but unlike the earlier design, it was a vertical tricolor, similar to the French flag , with the colors: red, green and blue (from left to right). These were supposed to represent the colors Noah saw when he landed on Mount Ararat .

In 1828 Persarmenia was annexed by the Russian Empire after the last Russo-Persian War . Subsequently it was called Russian Armenia. When the Russian Empire collapsed, Russian Armenia declared its independence and formed the short-lived Transcaucasian Democratic Federal Republic with Georgia and Azerbaijan . However, this unified state dissolved again within a year. Therefore, this republic did not have a flag or other representative symbols. Some historians believe that a tricolor of gold, black, and red (from above) represented the flag of the Republic. The federation dissolved on May 26, 1918, when Georgia declared its independence as the Democratic Republic of Georgia . Armenia and Azerbaijan declared their independence.

The Democratic Republic of Armenia adapted the current Armenian tricolor as the national flag. After Stepan Malchasyan's election to the Armenian National Council, the Armenian government decided to use the colors of the last period of the Rubenian dynasty for the national flag. The colors were red, blue and yellow, with the yellow being replaced with orange as it harmonized better with the other colors. As a proposal, the painter Martiros Sarjan had designed a rainbow flag as the flag of Armenia.

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  ^? Artaxic Dynasty 189 BC Chr. – 1 AD

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  1: 2 ^? Designed by Alishan in 1885

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  ^? Rainbow Flag Design by Martirosjan

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  1: 2 ^? Flag of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federal Republic (1918)

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  2: 3 ^? Flag of the Democratic Republic of Armenia 1918–1922

On November 29, 1920, the Bolsheviks founded the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (Armenian SSR). The new flag was introduced and enshrined in the constitution, which was adopted on February 2, 1922 by the 1st People's Deputies Congress of the Armenian SSR.

However, this flag only lasted for a month, since on March 12, 1922, the Armenian SSR was merged with the Georgian and Azerbaijani SSR in the Transcaucasian SFSR . On December 30, 1922, the Transcaucasian SFSR formed the USSR along with three other Soviet republics . The new flag of the Republic had a hammer and sickle within a star in the upper left corner. The lettering "З-С-Ф-С-Р" ("ZSFSR") was arched to the right under the star in Russian script. These letters stood for "Закавказская Социалистическая Федеративная Советская Республика, Sakavkasskaja Socialisticheskaya Federativnaya Soviet Socialist Federal Caucasian Soviet Republic" or "Transativna Soviet Socialist Federal Caucasian Soviet Republic". In 1936 the Transcaucasian SFSR was again divided into its three regions of origin, namely the Armenian SSR, the Georgian SSR and the Azerbaijani SSR.

As a republic of the USSR , the Armenian SSR reintroduced its own flag in 1936. Similar to the flag of the Soviet Union , it was red with a yellow star, hammer and sickle in the canton. Below were the initials "HChSH" in Armenian script. These initials stood for "Hajkakan Chorhurtajin Sozialistakan Hanrapetutjun" or "Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic".

In 1940 a Russified From was introduced, the initials were now "HSSR" for "Hajastani Sowetakan Sozialistikan Respublika". A new flag was introduced on December 17, 1952. The initials were removed and a blue, horizontal stripe appeared in their place. The star, hammer and sickle were missing from the back of the flag. This flag lasted until 1991, when Armenia regained independence and reintroduced the pre-Soviet tricolor. The aspect ratio of the flag was adjusted from 2: 3 to 1: 2.

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  ^? Flag of the Armenian SSR 1922

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  1: 2 ^? Flag of the Transcaucasian SFSR 1922–1936

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  ^? Flag of the Armenian SSR 1936-1940

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  ^? Flag of the Armenian SSR 1940–1952

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  1: 2 ^? Flag of the Armenian SSR 1952-1991

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  ^? Construction scheme of the 1952 flag

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  1: 2 ^? Flag of the Armenian SSR, back side

use

The law relating to the national flag of Armenia requires the flag to be hoisted daily in the following places:

• Public buildings
• Seat of the President
• National Assembly
• Constitutional Court
• Buildings of representative institutions

The law allows citizens to fly the flag on their homes as long as it hangs more than 2.5 meters from the ground. It prohibits the use of soiled, faded or dull flags for these purposes.

National Flag Days

The state welcomes the raising of the flag, but is only required on the following days:

• 1./2. January - New Year
• January 6th - Christmas
• March 8th - International Women's Day
• April 7th - Mother's Day
• April 24th - Memorial Day for the Armenian Genocide in 1915
• May 1st - International Workers' Day
• May 9 - Victory and Peace Day
• May 28 - Day of the 1st Armenian Republic, 1918
• July 5 - Constitution Day 1995
• September 21 - Independence Day 1991
• December 7th - Spitak earthquake commemoration day in 1988

The flag in the national anthem

The national flag can be found in the " Mer Hayreniq ", the official national anthem of Armenia . In particular, the second and third stanzas deal with the creation of the national flag.

More flags of Armenia

The Armenian capital Yerevan adopted a new flag on April 14, 2005, in which the city's coat of arms rests on a white background. The coat of arms is framed by twelve red triangles, which symbolize the eleven historical and present capital of Armenia. The design comes from Karapet Pashyan, who also designed the Armenian coins.

During the First World War , a regional Armenian government was established around Lake Van , the administration of western Armenia . They used a flag that largely corresponded to the Russian tricolor .

In the center of the light blue “Pan-Armenian Games” flag are six interlocking rings, similar to the Olympic rings . The sixth ring is orange and has a connection to the red and blue rings. It is supposed to symbolize Armenia. Above the rings is a flame in the Armenian colors.

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  Flag of Yerevan

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  Flag of the Administration of Western Armenia 1915–1918

Artsakh Republic

→ Main article : Flag of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

The Republic of Artsakh is an area mainly inhabited by Armenians , which belongs to Azerbaijan under international law , but is de facto independent from the central government in Baku .

On June 2, 1992, it introduced its own flag based on the Armenian tricolor. It is also red, blue and orange; However, it has a white, five-tooth carpet pattern, which begins in the two right corners and connects after about a third of the flag. The white pattern symbolizes the current division of Armenia and the hopes for “unification with the motherland.” The aspect ratio is also 1: 2.

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  1: 2 ^? Flag of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

Web links

Commons : Flags of Armenia  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Flags of the World - Armenia (English)
• Meaning / origin of the flag of Armenia . In: Nationalflaggen.de . Retrieved June 6, 2007.
• Flag and national anthem

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Reproduction on the embassy website ( Memento from April 12, 2010 in the web archive archive.today )
2. ↑ Meaning / origin of the Armenia flag . In: Nationalflaggen.de . Retrieved June 6, 2007.
3. ^ Flags of the World - Armenia
4. ↑ The Development of the Armenian Flag . In: Armenianheritage.com . Retrieved April 15, 2007.
5. ↑ Закавказская Федерация (Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic) ( Russian ) Russian Center for Vexillology and Heraldry . May 30, 2003. Archived from the original on June 22, 2006. Retrieved on May 3, 2007.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Советская Армения (Soviet Armenia) ( Russian ) Russian Center for Vexillology and Heraldry . November 14, 2004. Retrieved May 5, 2007.
7. ^ Armenia: First Republic (1918-1921) . In: Flags of the World . Archived from the original on December 7, 2006. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 5, 2007. 
8. ↑ Armenia . Flags of the World page. Retrieved May 3, 2007.
9. ^ Armenia: Sports Flags . Flags of the World. Retrieved May 5, 2007.
10. ^ Flag of Nagorno-Karabakh . Flags of the World. Retrieved May 5, 2007.