Armenian eternity sign

The Armenian eternity sign (⟨֎ ֍⟩, Հավերժության նշան) or Arevakhach (Արեւախաչ, "Sun Cross") is an ancient Armenian national symbol and a symbol of the national identity of the Armenian people. It is one of the most common symbols in Armenian architecture, carved on khachkars and on walls of churches.

Evolution and use
In medieval Armenian culture, the eternity sign symbolized the concept of everlasting, celestial life. From the 1st century BC, it appeared on Armenian steles; later it became part of khachkar symbolism. Around the 8th century the use of the Armenian symbol of eternity had become a long established national iconographical practice, and it has kept its meaning in modern times. Besides being one of the main components of khachkars, it can be found on church walls,  tomb stones and other architectural monuments. Notable churches with the eternity sign include the Mashtots Hayrapet Church of Garni, Horomayr Monastery, Nor Varagavank, Tsitsernavank Monastery. An identical symbol appears in the reliefs of the Divriği Great Mosque and Hospital, and is likely a borrowing from earlier Armenian churches of the area. It can also be found on Armenian manuscripts.

The eternity sign is used on the logos of government agencies and on commemorative coins, as well as Armenian government agencies and non-government organizations and institutions in Armenia and the Armenian diaspora.
 * see the image of the coin
 * , see the logo of the Customs Service of Armenia
 * The Council of the city Yerevan, the seal of Yerevan, 2010, see the logo of Yerevan
 * Ministry of Justice of RA, about the medals and decorations, 2007
 * The government of Armenia, symbol of the cooperation «Armenia-Diaspora», 2012
 * Ministry of Emergency Situations, about the medals and decorations, 2011, see the symbol of the cooperation «Armenia-Diaspora»
 * Central Bank of Armenia, coin «15-years of liberation of Shushi», 2007, see the image of the coin

The symbol is also used by Armenian neopagan organizations and their followers. It is called by them "Arevakhach" (Արեւախաչ, "sun cross").

ArmSCII and Unicode
In ArmSCII, Armenian Standard Code for Information Interchange, an Armenian eternity sign has been encoded in 7-bit and 8-bit standard and ad hoc encodings since at least 1987. In 2010 the Armenian National Institute of Standards suggested encoding an Armenian Eternity sign in the Unicode character set, and both left-facing ⟨֎⟩ and right-facing ⟨֍⟩ Armenian eternity signs were included in Unicode version 7.0 when it was released in June 2014.

Gallery

 * Churches