Monte Melkonian

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search
Monte Melkonian
Monte Melkonian.jpg
Melkonian during the Nagorno-Karabakh War in Martuni, January 1993
Nickname(s) Avo
Born November 25, 1957
Visalia, California, United States
Died June 12, 1993 (aged 35)
Merzili, Aghdam, Azerbaijan
Buried Yerablur
Allegiance ASALA
Nagorno-Karabakh
Service/branch Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army
Years of service 1979–1993
Rank Lieutenant Colonel
Commands held Martuni Detachment
Battles/wars Iranian Revolution
1979 Kurdish rebellion in Iran
Lebanese Civil War
1982 Lebanon War
Nagorno-Karabakh War
Awards National Hero of Armenia
Spouse(s) Seda Melkonian
Relations Markar Melkonian (brother)
Other work The Right to Struggle (selected writings printed posthumously in 1993)
Monte Melkonian (classical Armenian: Մոնթէ Մելքոնեան; reformed: Մոնթե Մելքոնյան;
November 25, 1957 – June 12, 1993) was an Armenian revolutionary,[1] left-wing
nationalist militant and commander. He was the leader of an offshoot of the
Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) in the 1980s and the
most celebrated commander during the Nagorno-Karabakh War in the early 1990s.[2]

An Armenian-American, Melkonian left the United States and arrived in Iran in 1978
during the beginning of the 1979 Revolution, taking part in demonstrations against
the Shah. Following the collapse of the Shah's monarchy, he traveled to Lebanon
during the height of the civil war and served in an Armenian militia group in the
Beirut suburb of Bourj Hammoud. In ASALA, he took part in the assassinations of
several Turkish diplomats in Europe during the early to mid-1980s. He planned the
1981 Turkish consulate attack in Paris.[3] He was later arrested and sent to prison
in France. In 1989, he was released and in the following year, acquired a visa to
travel to Armenia.

Melkonian had no prior service record in any country's army before being placed in
command of an estimated 4,000 men in the Nagorno-Karabakh War.[4] He had largely
built his military experience beginning from the late 1970s and 1980s, when he
fought in Lebanon with ASALA. Melkonian fought against various factions in the
Lebanese Civil War and against the IDF in the 1982 war.

Melkonian carried several aliases over his career and was known as Avo to the
troops under his command in Nagorno-Karabakh. The last years of his life were spent
fighting with the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army.[5] Monte was killed by Azerbaijani
soldiers while surveying Merzili with five of his comrades in the aftermath of
battle.[6] He was buried at Yerablur cemetery in Yerevan and declared a National
Hero of Armenia in 1996.[7]

Contents
1 Early life
1.1 Youth
1.2 Education
2 Departure from home
2.1 Teaching in Iran
2.2 Civil war in Lebanon
2.3 ASALA
2.4 Arrest and imprisonment
3 Armenia
3.1 Nagorno-Karabakh
4 Death and legacy
4.1 Public image
5 Views and beliefs
5.1 Political views
5.2 Religion
5.3 Alcohol consumption
6 Personal life
7 Awards
8 References
9 Bibliography
10 External links
Early life
Youth
Melkonian was born on November 25, 1957 at Visalia Municipal Hospital in Visalia,
California to Charles (1918−2006)[8] and Zabel Melkonian (1920−2012).[9] He was the
third of four children born to a self-employed cabinetmaker and an elementary-
school teacher.[10] By all accounts, Melkonian was described as an all-American
child who joined the Boy Scouts and was a pitcher in Little League baseball.[11]
Melkonian's parents rarely talked about their Armenian heritage with their
children, often referring to the place of their ancestors as the "Old Country." His
interest in his background only sparked at the age of eleven, when his family went
on a year-long trip to Europe in 1969.

While taking Spanish language courses in Spain, his teacher had posed him the
question of where he was from. Dissatisfied with Melkonian's answer of
"California", the teacher rephrased the question by asking "where did your
ancestors come from?" His brother Markar Melkonian remarked that "her image of us
was not at all like our image of ourselves. She did not view us as the Americans we
had always assumed we were." From this moment on, for days and months to come,
Markar continues, "Monte pondered [their teacher Señorita] Blanca's question Where
are you from?"[12]

In the spring of that year, the family also traveled across Turkey to visit the
town of Merzifon, where Melkonian's maternal grandparents were from. Merzifon's
population at the time was 23,475 but was almost completely devoid of its once
17,000-strong Armenian population that was wiped out during the Armenian Genocide
in 1915. They did find one Armenian family of the three that was living in the
town, however, Melkonian soon learned that the only reason this was so, was because
the head of the family in 1915 had exchanged the safety of his family in return for
identifying all the Armenians in the town to Turkish authorities during the
genocide.[13] Monte would later confide to his wife that "he was never the same
after that visit....He saw the place that had been lost."[11]

Education