Ghevont Alishan

Who was Ghevont Alishan?

Father Ghevont Alishan was an ordained Armenian Catholic priest, historian and a poet. He was awarded by the Legion of Honour of the French Academy, an honorary member of the Asian Society of Italia, Archeological Society of Moscow, Venice Academy and Archeological Society of Saint-Petersburg.

He was a member of the Mkhitarist Congregation in Venice since 1838.

In 1885, Armenian Students Association of Paris appealed to him to create the first modern Armenian flag. His first design was a horizontal tricolor, but with a set of colors different from those used on the Armenian flag of today. The top band would be red to symbolize the first Sunday of Easter, the green to represent the "Green" Sunday of Easter, and finally an arbitrary color, white, was chosen to complete the combination. While in France, Alishan also designed a second flag inspired by the national Flag of France, identified today as the "Nationalist Armenian Flag." Its colors were red, green, and blue respectively, representing the band of colors that Noah saw after landing on Mount Ararat.