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The flag of present Armenia was designed in an exile. They claim that the colors of the Armenian flag back to ancient times, in 2nd century BC. This is stated in the encyclopedia "States and flags," published in Tallinn.

The book explains that the Armenians are one of the oldest independently discriminated ethnic groups in Europe. 2.5 thousand years ago, they, separated from all other nations and occupied the Caucasus plateau situated between the mountains. In addition to the territory of the present Armenia their lands covered much of Eastern Turkey and Iran. The independent Armenian alphabet was developed in the IV. BC, and it was the first country in the Christian world to adopt Christianity as a state religion in 301 AD.

The encyclopedia states that in 1917, Armenia along with the Georgians and Azerbaijanis formed an independent Transcaucasian Federative Republic. It fell apart because of sharp contradictions, and in 1918 spring Armenian, or Yerevan, Republic was established. Soon, for the first time since the Middle Ages, independent Armenia appeared.

The red, blue and orange tricolour, designed in 1885 by Armenians emigrants became the Armenian emblem. Priest Ghevond Alishan, who worked in the Armenian Institute of Venetia, wrote that "the Armenians were given a rainbow flag, when Noah's Ark during the Great Flood anchored at the top of the Mount Ararat - the highest mountain in Armenia." However, the Alishan’s project of the flag had three colors – red, green and blue.

The colors of the rainbow were interpreted as symbols of hope for the future of a nation that suffered so many ordeals during its two thousand years of history. The arguments over the colors lasted till 1918, until they stopped on a red-blue-and-orange flag. Red symbolizes the bloody sacrifice of the Armenians who died for their right to live on that land mostly in struggle against the Turks, blue symbolizes hope and indestructibility of the country, the eternity, like the blue of the sky. Orange is the color of blessing.

In 1920, the Turks, led by Kemal Atatürk, again conquered the territories that are now a part of the Turkish Armenia, including the sacred Mount to Armenians Ararat. Two years later, a part of Armenia became the part of the Transcaucasian Soviet Republic. In 1936, however, it was dissolved and the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) was established along with the others. Its flag had no remarkable originality in itself – the red banner was stretched across by a broad horizontal dark blue stripe. In 1990, Armenia initiated a sovereignty process, the old flag was re-enacted as a national symbol.

The article also touches upon the flag of the Nagorno-Karabakh. It is noted that the flag of Nagorno-Karabakh definitely indicates a part of which country it would prefer to be. Announcing about its separation from Azerbaijan in 1992, Nagorno-Karabakh started to use the Armenian flag, which was crossed by a broken white strip.