“Two Variants of the Flag Are Being Sold: Dark and Light Tones” - Smbat GogyAN

Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Smbat GogyAN wrote: “In 2014, the International Mathematics Olympiad was held in Cape Town. We arrived and realized that we did not have a national flag. We searched through shops but found nothing suitable, neither fabric nor a flag. We decided to make one out of linen. We took graphite paint and the linen, and got to work. The flag was ready in an hour. We had caught the colors well, but there were two problems: the smell of the paint stuck to the flag and, after the paint dried, the piece had hardened and was barely waving. In short, we successfully participated in the opening ceremony, and many representatives from different countries liked our flag. In the end, by the vote of the team members, Albert Gevorgyan was declared the winner in the category of ‘Unexpectedly Successful Participation,’ and we handed the flag to Albert. The team leader, Tigran Margaryan, was monitoring the opening ceremony from the hall and was unfamiliar with the origin of the flag. At the end, he asked what kind of flag it was, which neither folded nor waved.

Now, it’s interesting to see which of these two flags was given by the federation and which one was made by hand. Or maybe both were taken from Vernissage, just from different sellers. This is also a current issue that exists independently of past/present confrontations: in the Republic of Armenia, two variants of the flag have always been sold and continue to be sold: dark tones and light tones.