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The
origin of the Armenian flag is very old and there is
no resemblance between the flag of ancient times and
the one that is used today. The ancient flag was a
piece of carving representing a dragon, an eagle, or
some mysterious object of the gods which was
fastened to the end of a pole and led the armies
into battle.
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Ardashesian Dynasty
(180 BC-1AD) |
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Vatchudian flag
(XIV century) |
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Pakradouni
(X century) |
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Broshian flag
(XIV century) |
The
Armenian word "Drosh," meaning flag, is derived from
the Persian "Drafsh" and perhaps the Parthian "Dravsha"
which was very familiar during the Armenian Golden
Age. The ancient Armenians Armenianized the word
into "Dravshag," which in later centuries, with the
introduction of the letter "o" into the Armenian
alphabet, was converted into "Drosh" and "Droshag."
In the beginning, the flag generally used by the
Armenians was square or rectangular with cloth
fastened to a pole.
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Mamigonian flag
(IV-IX century) |
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Marzbanate period
(IV-VII century) |
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The flag
was called "Var," the Armenian word for
cloth. In the immediate aftermath of the
introduction of Christianity, the
Armenians named this flag "Khachvar"
because the flag was embossed with a
cross of gold brocade. Thus, the use of
the cross on the flag followed the use
of the oldest emblems such as the eagle,
the lion and the dragon. |
The
Armenian Apostolic Church, in the early centuries of
the Christian era, adopted a second monogrammatic
form of the flag in which the cross was accentuated
even more. The color of the flag was purple, the
royal colors, and the embossed cross was a gold
brocade according to the custom. I.
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Arsacide Dynasty
(64 AD - 428 AD) |
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Rupenian Dynasty
(1080 AD-1375 AD) |
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In the
Middle Ages, the flag was unicolored
regardless of the shades. When Levon II
was being anointed King of the Rubenian
Dynasty of Cilicia, Pope Celestine III
of Rome sent him a banner with the
insignia of a lion in 1197. The flag,
which was white, carried a red lion with
raised paws |
After the downfall of the Rubenian Dynasty and the
loss of their independence, the Armenians naturally
had no national flag. The question of the Armenian
flag came up in 1885, when the Armenian Students
Association of Paris, desirous of joining the
funeral of Victor Hugo with a national flag,
appealed to Father Alishan for the true colors of
the flag.
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Father
Alishan, without any historical proof,
composed the "Armenian Flag" which later
was adopted as the official flag of the
Hunchak party. The flag was based solely
on data from the Armenian Church
calendar according to which the first
Sunday of Easter is called "Red" Sunday,
the second, "Green" Sunday, and
selecting an arbitrary color of his own,
the white completed the color
combination. |
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Tricolor of Alishan (1855) |
Thereafter, Father Alishan created a second
classification of colors: yellow, red and green or
blue, red, and green, taking it from the colors of
the rainbow based on the premise that God gave the
Armenian flag on the very day when the colors of the
rainbow bathed the Ark of Noah on Mount Ararat.
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Armenian Tricolor (1918)
Republic of Armenian
Coat of Arms (1918) |
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The yellow,
red, and green flag was adopted by the
Armenians and used during World War I.
Finally,
seeing that the colors of Father Alishan
were arbitrary, with no historic basis
or value, the Government of the
Independent Republic of Armenia selected
the colors of the last period of the
Rubenian Dynasty: red, blue and yellow,
in which the yellow immediately was
replaced by the orange, because it
easily merged with the rest of the
colors and presented a more pleasing
composition.
"This was
the origin of the beautiful and glorious
Armenian Tricolor which became the flag
of the Independent Republic of Armenia."
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COATS
OF ARMS
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Escutcheon of
King Leo V |
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Cilicia Coat of
Arms (Cyprus UK XIV century) |
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Coat of Arms |
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Coat of Arms |
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