Flag of Armenia
Armenia’s flag has three horizontal stripes of equal width, red, blue and orange from the top. Armenia’s flag law, as the Foreign Ministry sets it out, gives the meanings: red for the Armenian Highland, the people’s continued struggle for survival, the Christian faith, and Armenia’s independence and freedom; blue for the will to live beneath peaceful skies; orange for the creative talent and hard work of the people.
How to read it
Article 21 of Armenia’s constitution says the flag is a tricolour of equal horizontal stripes of red, blue and orange, and leaves the detail to a law. The present law on the national flag was adopted on 15 June 2006, after the constitutional reform of 27 November 2005, the Foreign Ministry says; it replaced the law of 24 August 1990, by which the Supreme Soviet of Armenia restored the flag. The law sets the stripes red, blue and orange from top to bottom, of the same width, and the flag’s width to length at 1:2; smaller and larger flags in the same proportions may be used.
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The flag of 1918
The tricolour was first adopted on 28 May 1918, Store norske leksikon records, and was designed by the philologist Stepan Malkhasyants (1857–1947). The independent Armenian republic used it until 1922; it came back into unofficial use from 1988 before its restoration in 1990.
The flag in the anthem and the arms
The anthem, “Our Fatherland”, adopted on 1 July 1991 and based on the anthem of the First Republic of 1918 to 1920, sings of the flag: “Here is a flag for you my brother, that I have sewed over the sleepless nights”, and “Look at it, tricoloured, a valuable symbol for us”, in the Foreign Ministry’s translation. The coat of arms carries the same three colours: an orange Mount Ararat with Noah’s ark on the central shield, and the arms of four historical royal dynasties in red and blue around it. The Foreign Ministry says these colours stand for the colours of the national flag.
Read next
- Next in Asian flagsFlag of AzerbaijanAzerbaijan’s flag has three horizontal stripes of equal width, blue, red and green from the top, with a white crescent and a white eight-pointed star in the middle of the red. The President’s office gives the meanings: blue for the Turkic origin of the Azerbaijani people, red for the wish to build a modern society and develop democracy, and green for belonging to Islamic civilisation.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of EthiopiaEthiopia’s flag is green, yellow and red in equal horizontal stripes with a blue disc in the centre holding a yellow star of equal lines with yellow rays. Ethiopia’s Flag Proclamation makes the green labour, fertility and development, the yellow hope, justice and equality, and the red sacrifice and heroism for freedom and equality; the blue disc is peace and the star the unity of Ethiopia’s nations, nationalities and peoples.
More asian flags
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with lines or squares and rectangles.
Sources
- State Symbols (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, “State Symbols”, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, The flag; the coat of arms; the anthem
- Constitution of Armenia, 2015, Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, 1995 (rev. 2015), article 21 (English, Constitute Project), Constitute Project, Article 21
- Armenias flagg og våpen (Store norske leksikon), Nora Tessem and Lars Roede, “Armenias flagg og våpen”, Store norske leksikon, Store norske leksikon, Article text
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 13, 2026. How we research
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