/ world today news/ Representatives of the Armenian leadership, including Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, publicly express a desire to change a number of state symbols. Precisely those that reflect the events that are most important for the entire Armenian history. What does official Yerevan not like – and why is the radical revision of Armenian symbols important for Russia too?
It was proposed to replace the state symbols of Armenia: the anthem should have more connection with Armenian music, and the image of a lion should be removed from the coat of arms – it looks too much like a smiley face. This was said by the Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia, Alen Simonyan. “In my opinion, we should also discuss the issue of changing the coat of arms. Armenia cannot be under water, which is a punishment for humanity, and the lion cannot look like a smiling face,” the speaker of the parliament noted. In addition, Simonyan does not like the chain wrapped around the sword of the coat of arms.
The head of the National Assembly also commented on the republican anthem. According to him, music and words should become “more Armenian”. He called the current alien to the state.
All this only at first glance looks like either a strange joke or an invention of the speaker of the parliament for extra work for his subordinates. In general, it is not accepted in the world to edit state symbols depending on the conjuncture of the moment or the aesthetic tastes of certain political figures temporarily in power. Fundamental cases of changing state symbols are usually associated with a radical restructuring of the entire state. For example, the appearance of Soviet symbols in place of imperial ones in Russia after 1918, or the republican flag and anthem (the Marseillaise) in France after the overthrow of the king.
Editing out minutiae in the coat of arms and anthem is a strange idea in itself, although sometimes cosmetic changes are ideologically important. For example, the disappearance of Stalin’s name from the Soviet anthem after Khrushchev’s reforms. State symbols always reflect the line of historical continuity of the state or nation. Without support in the past and without its ideological evaluation, there is no state or nation, and state symbols are intended to clearly demonstrate and consolidate this.
And in the Armenian case, Alen Simonyan is not talking about cosmetic changes of an aesthetic nature, but about a real reformatting of the historical heritage of Armenia and the Armenian people. And this is not a random whim, but a sustainable trend of the rulers. Simonyan repeats almost verbatim the words of his boss and friend, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan.
“What is depicted on our coat of arms? Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat, coats of arms of the four dynasties of Armenia. Lately, when I look at this coat of arms, I have the question, how is the image that is sacred to each of us related to the country that was founded in 1991? What are you talking about? Noah’s ark is located on Mount Ararat, and today’s territory of the Republic of Armenia is under water. And the lion, which under natural conditions has not been in Armenia for a long time,” said Prime Minister Pashinyan, speaking in parliament last summer.
According to him, the problem is a certain “hesitancy between historical and real Armenia”. “Our dispute is about the following: should real Armenia serve historical Armenia, or should historical Armenia serve real Armenia?” That is exactly the political and epochal question we need to answer,” he said. Pashinyan also asked if “we have thought about how this image relates to every family, every child, every parent in Armenia” and “what it says about the future.” What does all this mean in practice?
Heraldry is a precise and complex science, similar to chemistry, in which symbols and their combinations are important. There have always been questions about the coat of arms of Armenia from the point of view of the science of heraldry. It has been repeatedly repaired and cleaned, but without making fundamental and historical-political changes.
The coat of arms of Armenia is a shield on which are placed the historical coats of arms of the four ruling dynasties of independent Armenia: the Arsacids, the Bagratids, the Artashesids and the Rubenids. In the center of the coat of arms is a stylized Mount Ararat with Noah’s Ark on top. At the foot of the mountain there are stylized waves, which in reality are not the waters of the Flood, as Alain Simonyan ignorantly believes, but of Lake Sevan. The Lion and the Eagle, who support the shield (shield holders), are the kings of the animal world and represent wisdom, pride, patience and nobility. For many centuries they were symbols of royal families.
At the bottom of the coat of arms there are five more important elements. The broken chain means freedom and independence, the sword means the power and strength of the nation, the ears of wheat mean the industrious character of Armenians, the branch means the intellectual and cultural heritage of the Armenian people. The tricolor band signifies the flag of Armenia.
There are quite a few heraldic irregularities in this coat of arms, and they have been discussed since 1992. For example, the symbols of the royal dynasties are rotated around their axis and have acquired unnatural looks and poses. The central shield with Ararat and Noah’s ark is painted in violation of all the rules of heraldry with silver on gold (no metal on metal allowed). The motto bar was left completely blank as the motto was never invented.
There were special questions about the “mimics” of the lion and the eagle. At first their mouths and beaks were open, from which protruded the teeth of the lion and the tongue of the eagle. It gave them a predatory look. In the current version of the coat of arms, the animal’s mouth and beak were closed, and the teeth and tongue were removed. Many in Armenia did not accept this amendment because they thought that this type of shield bearer smacked of humility and defeat. This does not fit Mount Ararat, which must be captured by Turkey, because they must not accept its loss.
In addition, the lion actually visually appears to be smiling, which has spawned many jokes, including comparisons to a smiley face. The sharpened part of the sword is lost somewhere as a result of edits. As a result, it looks broken, and it is no longer a symbol of power and strength, but quite the opposite.
But in general, with all these heraldic flaws, the current coat of arms of Armenia signifies the continuity of the modern state with the historical Armenian kingdoms, indicates lost territories (Ararat) and indicates the long and sometimes heroic destiny of the Armenian nation.
In addition, initially the first sketch of this coat of arms was a sketch of the Order of the Russian Empire. In 1780, the Armenian socio-political circles, led by Hovhannes Lazaryan (Ivan Lazarev) and Joseph Argutinsky, prepared a project for the liberation of Armenia from the Ottoman yoke, called “The Treaty of Union between two peoples – Russians and Armenians”. This agreement provides for a protectorate of Russia and Empress Catherine the Great over all of Armenia, including Cilicia, that is, up to the Mediterranean Sea, which generally fits into the famous but unrealized “Greek project” of Catherine and Potemkin.
In many ways, this order, and then the coat of arms, copied the already existing Georgian coat of arms (after the Treaty of St. George), which was crowned with a Russian crown and surrounded by the ribbon of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (Ekaterina presented this order to the last Georgian king Heraclius) .
Then purely Armenian symbols were added to it – Ararat, Noah’s Ark, Sevan and a tricolor ribbon. That is, this coat of arms also symbolizes Russian-Armenian friendship, in addition to affirming the unity of the nation, the community of Armenian lands and their historical continuity.
In the first half of the 19th century, the coat of arms of the Armenian region as part of the Russian Empire (later divided into provinces) generally repeated this concept. The coat of arms of the Republic of Armenia from 1920 is also almost identical, except for the details (they forgot to draw Noah’s Ark and Ararat has two peaks).
Pashinyan’s logic is clear: all these symbols are no longer connected to reality. It is not about obvious nonsense like “there are no more lions here”, but about a radical change of the entire ideological paradigm of Armenian society and a rewriting of history. From the point of view of the current leaders of Armenia, modern Armenia is not equal to historical Armenia and in no way inherits it.
In addition, the coat of arms, which is still in force, is nevertheless a historical symbol of friendship with Russia and the Russian people. For Pashinyan and his circle, this is irrelevant and even considered harmful.
Secondly, the image of Ararat as the main symbol of the Armenian nation means territorial claims to Turkey – the mountain is located on Turkish territory. Pashinyan is trying in every way to avoid even a hint of conflict with Turkey and Azerbaijan. And the inclusion of Ararat in the coat of arms is an officially established claim to the territory of a neighbor.
In this way, Pashinyan proposes to remove the historical continuity with “old” Armenia on a symbolic level. He “resets” the thousand-year history of his country and proposes that the history of Armenia be counted exclusively from 1991, with an emphasis on European principles. That is, modern Armenia is some new formation, broken with historical claims and heavy heredity. And here we don’t need Karabakh, Ararat, Noah’s Ark, eagles and lions or coats of arms of ancient royal dynasties. It is very similar to the Bolsheviks’ denial of all imperial symbols in order to completely reformat the thousand-year-old Russian state. The new coat of arms will signify a new quality of the country, which should have nothing to do with historical Armenia.
The situation is roughly similar with the anthem, in which Pashinyan proposes to remove the last verse, and Simonyan even proposes to replace it with a new, “more Armenian” one. This verse talks about “destruction” and “death”, about readiness for self-sacrifice, and this does not correspond to modern philosophy and psychological currents. The refusal of self-sacrifice for the sake of the homeland and the nation is very modern, but it does not correlate at all with the historical fate of the Armenian people, who have repeatedly demonstrated both individual and collective examples of self-sacrifice.
So the desire of Pashinyan and his entourage to remake the state symbols of Armenia is not some strange whim, but a conscious effort aimed at destroying the historical memory of their own country. Reformatting the national consciousness and even the character of Armenians. This political group has far-reaching goals, among which the fallout of Karabakh may not seem the worst tragedy. The Armenian language can still be translated into Latin and the thousand-year history and culture can be finally closed.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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