Ara Arzumanyan

The Oath of Armenian Unity

We vow always to work toward the betterment of the Armenian nation the nation of people known as the Armenians worldwide, and at home in the Armenian homeland.

We vow to work toward bridging cultural, political and ideological differences among Armenians in the Armenian homeland and throughout the Diaspora.

We vow to help our Armenian sisters and brothers rise in the world and move towards our common goal. We will not engage in fraternal in-fighting.

We vow always to reach toward our fellow Armenian sisters and brothers in sincere love. Love is the foundation of our unity. In the end, if we have nothing else in common, we all love our children. Let us also love the children of one another with the same passion thus we will love our nation.

We vow to create, cultivate and live by the ideal of Armenian unity. This means, that while we will inevitably disagree on many subjects even fundamental subjects we will continue to work with one another, trusting in each other's good will toward the future of our people.

We vow to pass on to youth the importance of working together and living our culture.

We vow to make ourselves meek before the needs of the nation.

We vow to make ourselves meek before the needs of our families.

We affirm that what is good for the nation is good for our families.

We vow never to put the interests of a foreign power before the interests of the Armenian nation.

We vow not to allow despair to take us over. We will not be disheartened by failings of the past or current difficulties. We will each work to become the change we desire to be. We will each become the concept that is unity.

We will resist with all our might, employing violence against fellow Armenians. We must work toward peaceful conflict resolutions at all levels of society.

After I make all of these vows, I will attempt to change my thinking. To think less and less in terms of 'I' and to think more and more in terms of 'we'.

This insignia is an ancient cave drawing found in the Vardenis region of Armenia. The drawing is dated at approximately 2000 B.C. It is drawn in conjunction with representations of various celestial constellations surrounding it. The circle with the cross has many meanings. Most practically, the circle and cross signify a three dimensional sphere the earth. The human figures on the four sections of the sphere represent human beings living throughout the world. The ancient Armenians (the indigenous tribal inhabitants of the region that are the direct ancestors of the 3000 year old Armenian nation) knew 4000 years ago that the earth is a sphere.

The circle and cross have further significance, as the four arms of the cross reaching outward signify eternity and immortality. In essence, the symbol is a sort of Armenian spiritual infinity sign. The symbol is also understood to represent unity as in the unified Tribes of Nairi which came together and became the progenitor of the Armenian nation.

Today we look at this ancient symbol and attempt to understand the profound knowledge of our venerable ancestors, on whose shoulders we stand. This understanding of knowledge is a dialogue, in which we communicate with our past by drawing out contemporary meanings. The human figures on the four sections of the circle not only represent humans living throughout the world, but also our current situation with Armenians living throughout the world. These human Armenian figures stand on the very symbol of unity; thus, unity is the foundation of our nation. Although the figures represent communities throughout the world, the physical figures themselves are close enough to one another to reach out and join hands. As such, we must learn from the profound wisdom of our ancestors, and reach out to one another. This primitive wisdom surpasses our modern abilities in many ways. It unifies spiritual, temporal, political, geographical, astronomic, scientific etc. ideas in a single depiction. With a simple insignia our ancestors have been able to communicate throughout the millennia complex ideas that we today must fill pages of text to understand.

Let us show respect and understanding to our ancestors as well as our own future descendants and come together in the spiritual and physical unity represented in this symbol.