Monte Melkonian

{{Short description|Armenian revolutionary hero (1957–1993)}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = National Hero of Armenia | name = Monte Melkonian | native_name = {{lang|hy|Մոնթէ Մելքոնեան}} | native_name_lang = hy | image = Seda Melkonyan, Monte Melkonyan,Levon Mkrtchyan & Nare (cropped).jpg | image_size = 230px | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1957|11|25}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1993|06|12|1957|11|25}} | birth_place = Visalia, California, United States | death_place = Mərzili, Aghdam, Azerbaijan | burial_place = Yerablur, Armenia | alma_mater = University of California, Berkeley | nickname = Avo ({{lang|hy|Աւօ}}) | birth_name = | allegiance = ASALA (1980–1988)<br /> Artsakh (1988–1993) | branch = | service_years = 1978–1993 | unit = | commands = | battles = {{tree list}} * Iranian Revolution ** Black Friday (protester) * Lebanese Civil War ** 1982 Lebanon War * Nagorno-Karabakh conflict ** First Nagorno-Karabakh War ***Mardakert and Martuni Offensives ***Battle of Kalbajar ***Battle of Aghdam{{KIA}} {{tree list/end}} | battles_label = | awards = 20px|link= National Hero of Armenia (1996) | spouse = {{marriage|Seta Kabranian|1991|1993}} | relations = Markar Melkonian (brother) | other_work = ''The Right to Struggle: Selected Writings of Monte Melkonian on the Armenian National Question'' (1993){{Efn|Published posthumously. Compiled from selected works written by Melkonian between 1981 and 1991.}} | signature = | website =  }} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}} {{Use Oxford spelling|date=October 2023}}

'''Monte Melkonian''' ({{langx|hy|Մոնթէ Մելքոնեան}};{{Efn|Reformed Armenian orthography: {{lang|hy|Մոնթե Մելքոնյան}}}} 25 November 1957 – 12 June 1993) was an Armenian-American revolutionary{{sfn|Vorbach|1994}} and left-wing nationalist militant. He was a commander in the Artsakh Defense Army and National Hero of Armenia.{{sfn|de Waal|2013|p=341}}

Born in California, Melkonian left the United States and arrived in Iran as a teacher in 1978, amidst the Iranian Revolution. He took part in demonstrations against Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and subsequently travelled to Lebanon to serve with a Beirut-based Armenian militia fighting in the Lebanese Civil War. Melkonian was active in Bourj Hammoud, and was one of the planners of the Turkish consulate attack in Paris in 1981.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Dugan|first1=Laura|last2=Huang|first2=Julie Y.|last3=LaFree|first3=Gary|last4=McCauley|first4=Clark|title=Sudden desistance from terrorism: The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia and the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide|journal=Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict|date=2008|volume=1|issue=3|page=237|doi=10.1080/17467580902838227|s2cid=54799538|url=https://ccjs.umd.edu/sites/ccjs.umd.edu/files/pubs/Dugan%20et%20al%20Assymetric%20Conflict.pdf|access-date=2015-09-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304080156/https://ccjs.umd.edu/sites/ccjs.umd.edu/files/pubs/Dugan%20et%20al%20Assymetric%20Conflict.pdf|archive-date=2016-03-04|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was later arrested and imprisoned in France. He was released in 1989 and acquired a visa to travel to Armenia in 1990.

Prior to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, during which he commanded an estimated 4,000 Armenian troops, Melkonian had no official service record in any country's armed forces.{{sfn|Melkonian|2005|p=x}} Instead, his military experience came from his activity in ASALA during the Lebanese Civil War. With ASALA, Melkonian fought against various right-wing Lebanese militias in and around Beirut, and had also taken part in combat against Israel during the 1982 Lebanon War.

Over the course of his military career, Melkonian had adopted a number of aliases, including "Abu Sindi," "Timothy Sean McCormack," and "Saro."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Melkonian |first=Markar |title=My brother's road : an American's fateful journey to Armenia |date=2007 |publisher=I.B. Tauris |others=Seta Kabranian-Melkonian |isbn=978-1-84511-530-2 |location=London |pages=x,181, 279 |oclc=123114551}}</ref> During the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, many of the Armenian soldiers under his command referred to him as ''Avo'' ({{Lang|hy|Աւօ}}). On 12 June 1993, Melkonian was killed by Azerbaijani soldiers while he was surveying the village of Mərzili with five other Armenian soldiers after a battle.{{sfn|Melkonian|2005|p=264}} He was buried at Yerablur, a military cemetery in the capital city of Armenia Yerevan, and was posthumously conferred the title of National Hero of Armenia in 1996.<ref name="National Hero"/>

==Early life== ===Youth=== Melkonian was born on 25 November 1957, at Visalia Municipal Hospital in Visalia, California, to Charles (1918−2006)<ref>{{cite news|last1=Steinberg|first1=Jim|title=Armenian Hero's Father Dies At 88|url=http://www.armeniandiaspora.com/showthread.php?63043-Fresno-Armenian-Hero-s-Father-Dies-At-88|work=The Fresno Bee|date=20 September 2006}}</ref> and Zabel Melkonian (1920−2012).<ref>{{cite news|title=Commander Monte Melkonian's mother dies at 92|url=http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/136669/|agency=PanARMENIAN.Net|date=10 December 2012}}</ref> He was the third of four children born to a self-employed cabinet maker and an elementary-school teacher.{{sfn|Melkonian|2005|p=4}} By all accounts, Melkonian was described as an all-American child who joined the Boy Scouts and was a pitcher in Little League baseball.<ref name="LATimes"/> He also played the clarinet.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Melkonian|first=Monte|title=The Right to Struggle: Selected Writings by Monte Melkonian on the Armenian National Question|publisher=Sardarabad Collective|year=1993|pages=xi}}</ref> Melkonian's parents rarely talked about their Armenian heritage with their children, often referring to the place of their ancestors as the "Old Country". According to 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.{{sfn|Melkonian|2005|p=10-12}} In the spring of that year, the family also travelled 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. This trip apparently also deeply moved Melkonian.{{sfn|Melkonian|2005|pp=12-18}}<ref name="LATimes"/> During his final year at university, the Armenian Student Association was established, providing him with opportunities to engage with Armenian circles, participate in organized activities, and learn about other political movements through student associations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A self-criticism {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/760927424?oclcNum=760927424 |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=search.worldcat.org |language=en}}</ref>

===Education=== Upon his return to California, Melkonian returned to attend high school. He excelled in his courses and participated in a study abroad program in East Asia, visiting Vietnam and Japan, where he learned local customs and picked up on some of the language.{{sfn|Zurcher|2009|page=176}}{{sfn|Melkonian|2005|p=344}} After his stint abroad, he returned to the US and enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley with a Regents Scholarship, majoring in ancient Asian history and Archaeology. He finished his degree in under three years, and was accepted to the archaeology graduate program at the University of Oxford. He decided against this, however, and chose to travel abroad again, this time to the Middle East.{{sfn|Melkonian|2005|p=344}}

==Departure from the United States==

===Iranian Revolution=== After graduating from U.C. Berkeley in the spring of 1978, Melkonian travelled to Iran, where he taught English and participated in the movement to overthrow the Shah. He helped organize a teachers' strike at his school in Tehran, and was in the vicinity of Jaleh Square when the Shah's troops opened fire on protesters, killing and injuring many. Later, he found his way to Iranian Kurdistan, where Kurdish partisans made a deep impression on him. Years later, in southern Lebanon, he occasionally wore the uniform of the Kurdish peshmerga which he was given in Iranian Kurdistan.

===Lebanese Civil War=== In the fall of 1978, Melkonian made his way to Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, in time to participate in the defense of the Armenian quarter against the right-wing Phalange forces. While he was living in East Beirut, Melkonian worked underground with individual members of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party and the Lebanese Communist Party. Although he never professed an allegiance to the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), he was a member of the Armenian militia that defended positions in and around Bourj Hammoud that were under the command of ARF "group leaders". Melkonian was a permanent member of the militia's bases in Bourj Hammoud, Western Beirut, Antelias, Eastern Beirut, and other regions for almost two years, during which time he participated in several street battles against Phalange forces. He also began working behind the lines in Phalangist controlled territory, on behalf of the "Leftist and Arab" Lebanese National Movement. By this time, he was speaking Armenian – a language he had not learned until adulthood (Armenian was the fourth or fifth language Melkonian learned to speak fluently, after Spanish, French, and Japanese. In addition, he spoke passable Arabic, Italian, and Turkish, as well as some Persian and Kurdish).{{Citation needed|date=July 2013}}

==== ASALA ==== In the spring of 1980, Melkonian was inducted into the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) and secretly relocated to West Beirut. For the next three years he was an ASALA militant and contributor to the group's journal, ''Hayastan''. During this time, several Palestinian militant organizations provided their Armenian comrades with extensive military training. On 31 July 1980 in Athens, Melkonian assassinated the Administrative Attaché of Turkish Embassy in Greece, Galip Ozmen, considered by Melkonian to be a legitimate target for representing a regime that committed the Armenian genocide, occupied northern Cyprus, massacred Kurds in Turkey, among other crimes. After his death, Özmen was also revealed to have been a Turkish intelligence (MIT) spy. Melkonian also shot the passengers in the front and back seats who were obscured by darkly tinted window glass, believing them to be other diplomats. The passengers were later revealed to be Ozmen's wife Sevil, and his sixteen-year-old son, Kaan, who were wounded but survived, and his fourteen-year-old daughter, Neslihan, who later died of her wounds. Melkonian was reportedly unhappy to find out who the other passengers were, and later wrote that he would've spared them if he had a clearer view.{{sfn|Melkonian|2005|p=84-85}}

Melkonian carried out armed operations in Rome, Athens and elsewhere, and he helped to plan and train commandos for the "Van Operation" of September 24, 1981, in which four ASALA militants took over the Turkish embassy in Paris and held it for several days. In November 1981, French police arrested and imprisoned a young, suspected criminal carrying a Cypriot passport bearing the name "Dimitri Georgiu". Following the detonation of several bombs in Paris aimed at gaining his release, "Georgiu" was returned to Lebanon where he revealed his identity as Monte Melkonian.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

In mid-July 1983, ASALA violently split into two factions, one opposed to the group's despotic leader, whose nom de guerre was Hagop Hagopian, and another supporting him. Although the lines of fissure had been deepening over the course of several years, the shooting of Hagopian's two closest aides at a military camp in Lebanon finally led to the open breach. This impetuous action was perpetrated by one individual who was not closely affiliated with Melkonian. As a result of this action, however, Hagopian took revenge by personally torturing and executing two of Melkonian's dearest comrades, Garlen Ananian and Aram Vartanian.

===Imprisonment in France=== In the aftermath of this split, Melkonian spent over two years underground, first in Lebanon and later in France. After testifying secretly for the defence in the trial of Armenian militant and accused bank robber Levon Minassian, he was arrested in Paris in November 1985 and sentenced to six years in prison for possession of falsified papers and carrying an illegal handgun.

Melkonian spent over three years in Fresnes and Poissy prisons. He was released in early 1989 and sent from France to South Yemen, where he was reunited with his girlfriend Seta. Together they spent year and a half living underground in various countries of eastern Europe in relative poverty, as one Eastern Bloc regime after another disintegrated.

==Arrival in the Armenian SSR==

=== Dissolution of the Soviet Union === On 6 October 1990, Melkonian arrived in what was then still the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. During his first 8 months in Armenia, Melkonian worked in the Armenian Academy of Sciences, where he prepared an archaeological research monograph on Urartian cave tombs, which was posthumously published in 1995.<ref>"Հայաստանի հնագիտական հուշարձաններ, հ. 16 [Archaeological Monuments of Armenia, vol. 16], Yerevan, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia, 1995"</ref>

Finding himself on Armenian soil after many years, he wrote in a letter that he found a lot of confusion among his compatriots. Armenia faced enormous economic, political and environmental problems at every turn, problems that had festered for decades. New political forces bent on dismantling the Soviet Union were taking Armenia in a direction that Melkonian believed was bound to exacerbate the crisis and produce more problems. He believed that "a national blunder was taking place right before his eyes."<ref name="markar avo 2011"/>

=== Armenia and Azerbaijan === Under these circumstances, it quickly became clear to Melkonian that, for better or for worse, the Soviet Union had no future and the coming years would be perilous ones for the Armenian people. He then focused his energy on Nagorno-Karabakh. "If we lose [Karabakh]," the bulletin of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Forces quoted him as saying, "we turn the final page of our people's history."<ref>{{cite web | title = Monte Melkonian on Artsakh | url = https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2017/11/25/Armenia-National-Hero-Monte-Melkonian-birthday/1870465}}</ref> He believed that, if Azeri forces succeeded in deporting Armenians from Karabakh, they would advance on Zangezur and other regions of Armenia.{{refnec|date=September 2023}}

==== Nagorno-Karabakh conflict ==== [[File:Monte Melkonian Yerablur.jpg|thumb|Melkonian's tomb at Yerablur military cemetery]] On 12 or 14 September 1991, Melkonian travelled to the Shahumian region (north of Karabakh), where he fought for three months in the fall of 1991. There he participated in the capture of the villages of Erkej, Manashid and Buzlukh.{{refnec|date=September 2023}}

On February 4, 1992, Melkonian arrived in Martuni as the regional commander. Upon his arrival the changes were immediately felt: civilians started feeling more secure and at peace as Azeri armies were pushed back and were finding it increasingly difficult to shell Martuni's residential areas with GRAD missiles.{{refnec|date=September 2023}}

In April 1993, Melkonian was one of the chief military strategists who planned and led the operation to fight Azeri fighters and capture the region of Kalbajar of Azerbaijan which lies between Armenia and the former NKAO. Armenian forces captured the region in four days of heavy fighting, sustaining far fewer fatalities than the enemy.<ref name="Croissant, Michael P. 1998">Croissant, Michael P. (1998). The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: Causes and Implications. London: Praeger. {{ISBN|0-275-96241-5}}.</ref>

==Death and legacy== [[File:Monte Melkonian bust Victory Park, Yerevan2.jpg|thumb|Melkonian's bust at the Victory Park, Yerevan.]]

Melkonian was killed in the abandoned village of Merzili in the early afternoon of 12 June 1993{{sfn|de Waal|2003|p=208}} during the Battle of Aghdam. According to Markar Melkonian, Melkonian's older brother and author of his biography, Melkonian died in the waning hours of the evening by enemy fire during an unexpected skirmish that broke out with several Azerbaijani soldiers who had likely gotten lost.{{sfn|Melkonian|2005|p=264}}

Melkonian was buried with full military honors on 19 June 1993, at Yerablur military cemetery in the outskirts of Yerevan, where his coffin was brought from the Surb Zoravar Church in the city centre.<ref name="AIM 1993"/> Some 50,000 to 100,000 people (some reports put the figure as high as 250,000),{{sfn|Krikorian|2007|p=242}} including Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan,<ref name="LATimes"/><ref name="Bonner"/><ref name="hrw"/> acting Defense Minister Vazgen Manukyan, Deputy Foreign Minister Gerard Libaridian, other officials, and parliamentarians attended his funeral.<ref name="AIM 1993">{{cite journal |first=Taline |last=Satamian |title=Dossier: Commander Mourned |journal= Armenian International Magazine |date=June 1993|volume=4|issue=5|page= [https://archive.today/lYhBO/8593d00f92ce959c60945c8457de985ac74ccf7a.jpg 12] |issn=1050-3471}} ([https://web.archive.org/web/20241007073221/https://tert.nla.am/archive/NLA%20AMSAGIR/AIM/1993(5).pdf archived PDF])</ref>

The Karabakh town of Martuni was tentatively renamed Monteaberd<ref name="AIM 1993"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Krikorian|first1=Robert|last2=Masih|first2=Joseph|title=Armenia: At the Crossroads|date=1999|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-9057023453|page=44}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Zürcher|first1=Christoph|author-link1=Christoph Zürcher|title=The Post-Soviet Wars: Rebellion, Ethnic Conflict, and Nationhood in the Caucasus|date=2007|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=9780814797099|page=177}}</ref> {{langx|hy|Մոնթեաբերդ}};<ref>{{cite news|title=Հերոսի հիշատակը հարգելով. ուխտագնացություն դեպի Եռաբլուր|url=http://hetq.am/arm/news/2051/herosi-hishataky-hargelov-ukhtagnacutyun-depi-erablur.html|work=Hetq|date=13 June 2011|language=hy|quote=Մոնթեաբերդ-Մարտունու}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Այսօր Մոնթե Մելքոնյանի մահվան 20-ամյա տարելիցն է|url=https://www.yerkir.am/news/view/51925.html|work=Yerkir|date=12 June 2013|language=hy|quote=Երախտապարտ Արցախում նրա անունով են կոչել Մարտունու շրջկենտրոնը` վերանվանելով Մոնթեաբերդ}}</ref> literally "Fort Monte") in his honor.{{sfn|Krikorian|2007|p=242}} A statue of Melkonian was present in the town throughout the Republic of Artsakh era, but both Armenian and Azeri media reported on its removal after the 2023 Azeri takeover, with Azeri media such as Turan and Trend claiming it was removed by the Armenians to prevent the Azeris from doing so.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2023/09/26/Monte-Melkonian-monument/2902848 |title=Monte Melkonian monument dismantled in Artsakh's Martuni |author= |date=26 September 2023 |website=Panorama |access-date=5 October 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://turan.az/en/politics/monument-to-monte-melkonyan-dismantled-in-karabakh-769791 |title=Monument to Monte Melkonyan dismantled in Karabakh |author= |date=26 September 2023 |website=Turan |access-date=5 October 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.trend.az/azerbaijan/society/3803026.html |title=Azerbaijan dismantles monument to Armenian terrorist in Khojavend |author= |date=26 September 2023 |website=Trend |access-date=5 October 2024}}</ref>

In 1993, the Monte Melkonian Military Academy was established in Yerevan.<ref>{{cite news|title=Մոնթե Մելքոնյանի անվան վարժարանը նշել է հիմնադրման 21-ամյակը|url=http://www.1tv.am/hy/news/2014/11/15/College-after-Monte-Melkonian-celebrates/3383|work=1tv.am|agency=Public Television of Armenia|date=15 November 2014|language=hy|access-date=25 September 2015|archive-date=26 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926173319/http://www.1tv.am/hy/news/2014/11/15/College-after-Monte-Melkonian-celebrates/3383|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Statues of Melkonian have been erected in Yerevan's Victory Park, and in the towns of Dilijan (2017)<ref>{{cite news |title=President attends official opening of newly built educational complex after Monte Melkonian in Dilijan |url=https://www.president.am/en/press-release/item/2017/11/21/President-Serzh-Sargsyan-attended-at-Official-Opening-Ceremony-of-Monte-Melkonyan-Military-School/ |work=president.am |date=21 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007083349/https://www.president.am/en/press-release/item/2017/11/21/President-Serzh-Sargsyan-attended-at-Official-Opening-Ceremony-of-Monte-Melkonyan-Military-School/ |archive-date=7 October 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=President Sargsyan attends official opening of Monte Melkonyan military-training college in Dilijan |url=https://armenpress.am/en/article/913246 |agency=Armenpress |date=21 November 2017 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20241007083406/https://armenpress.am/en/article/913246 |archive-date=7 October 2024}}</ref> and Vardenis (2021).<ref>{{cite news |title=Վարդենիսում Մոնթեի հուշարձան և համանուն պուրակ է բացվել |url=https://www.panarmenian.net/arm/news/296994/ |agency=PanARMENIAN.Net |date=26 November 2021 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20211128122306/https://www.panarmenian.net/arm/news/296994/ |archive-date=28 November 2021 |language=hy |access-date=28 November 2021 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2021, the village of Shahumyani Trchnafabrika was renamed Monteavan after him.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Balasanyan |first1=Grisha |title=Մոնթեավանի համայնքապետարանի աշխատակիցը հանձնաժողովի անդամներին ցուցումներ էր տալիս |url=https://hetq.am/hy/article/138602 |work=Hetq |date=5 December 2021 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20211209112400/https://hetq.am/hy/article/138602 |archive-date=9 December 2021 |language=hy |quote=Արմավիրի մարզի Մոն��եավանի (մինչև խոշորացումը՝ Շահումյանի թռչնաֆաբրիկա)... |access-date=9 December 2021 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Public image=== Melkonian had become a legend in Armenia and Karabakh by the time of his death.<ref name="hrw"/> Due to his international socialist and Armenian nationalist views, one author described him as a mix between the early 20th century Armenian military commander Andranik and Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.<ref name="Afeyan"/> Thomas de Waal described him as a "professional warrior and an extreme Armenian nationalist"{{sfn|de Waal|2013|p=220}} who is "the most celebrated Armenian commander" of the Nagorno-Karabakh War.{{sfn|de Waal|2013|p=341}} Raymond Bonner wrote in 1993 that Melkonian had charisma and discipline, which is why he "rapidly became the most highly regarded commander in the Karabakh War."<ref name="Bonner"/> Razmik Panossian wrote that Melkonian was "a charismatic and very capable commander."<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Panossian|first1=Razmik|author-link1=Razmik Panossian|title=Between ambivalence and intrusion: Politics and identity in Armenia-diaspora relations|journal=Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies|date=1998|volume=7|issue=2|pages=149–196|doi=10.1353/dsp.1998.0011|s2cid=144037630|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dsp/summary/v007/7.2.panossian.html|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==Political and moral views== Melkonian was an Armenian nationalist and a revolutionary socialist.<ref name="nationalinterest">{{cite news|last1=de Waal|first1=Thomas|author-link1=Thomas de Waal|title=More War in the Caucasus|url=http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/more-war-caucasus-4846|work=The National Interest|date=9 February 2011|quote=...Californian-born Armenian nationalist commander Monte Melkonian...}}</ref><ref name="Afeyan"/> Throughout his life he sympathized with Marxism–Leninism, which was also the ideology of ASALA.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hasratian |title=The fighter for the idea|date=2007|publisher=Sona |isbn=9789994158232|page=7|quote=...throughout his lifetime Monte Melkonian sincerely sympathized with the theory of Marxism-Leninism.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Gore|first1=Patrick Wilson|title='Tis Some Poor Fellow's Skull: Post-Soviet Warfare in the Southern Caucasus|date=2008|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=978-0595486793|page=[https://archive.org/details/tissomepoorfello0000gore/page/19 19]|quote=ASALA was Marxist-Leninist and one of its leaders, the Armenian-American Monte Melkonian...|url=https://archive.org/details/tissomepoorfello0000gore/page/19}}</ref> Vorbach wrote in 1994 that his writings "expose him as an Armenian nationalist and a committed socialist of the Marxist-Leninist variety."{{sfn|Vorbach|1994|p=178}} According to his brother he "had not always been a communist, but he had never been an ''ex''-communist." Melkonian hoped that the Soviet Union would "reform itself, democratise, and promote personal freedoms" and did not abandon hope in Soviet Armenia until the end of the Soviet era appeared inevitable.<ref name="markar avo 2011"/> Philip Marsden wrote that his career "reveals the profound shift in radical ideology—from revolutionary Marxism to nationalism." Marsden adds that in the 1980s his ideology came into conflict with a growing nationalism: "With ever greater difficulty, he squeezed the Armenian question into the context of left-wing orthodoxy, believing for instance that Armenia's independence from the Soviet Union would be a terrible error."<ref name="Marsden"/> In the 1980s he advocated for the Soviet takeover of Turkey's formerly Armenian populated areas and its unification with Soviet Armenia.<ref name="LATimes"/> Yet he likewise supported the idea that "the most direct way... to attain the right to live in 'Western Armenia' is by participating in the revolutionary struggle in Turkey"<ref>{{Cite book|author=Melkonian, Monte |title=The right to struggle : selected writings by Monte Melkonian on the Armenian national question|date=1993|publisher=Sardarabad Collective|author2=Melkonian, Markar |isbn=0-9641569-1-1|edition=2nd |location=San Francisco, Calif. |oclc=29999164}}</ref> and considered the option of Armenian self-determination within a revolutionary Turkish or Kurdish state.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Leupold|first=David|title=Embattled Dreamlands. The Politics of Contesting Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish Memory|year=2020|location=New York|page=47}}</ref> In the 1980s, while in a French prison, he called for the creation of a guerrilla force in eastern Turkey which would unite Kurdish rebels, left-wing Turks, and Armenian revolutionaries.<ref name="LATimes"/> Vorbach summarized his views on Turkey:{{sfn|Vorbach|1994|pp=178-179}}

{{blockquote|He was a revolutionary personality motivated by the vision of an overthrow of the 'chauvinist' leadership in Turkey and the establishment of a revolutionary socialist government (be it Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian or Soviet Armenian) under which Armenians could live freely in their historic homeland, which includes areas in present day Turkey.}}

While in Poissy prison, Melkonian drafted a political manifesto for his envisioned "Armenian Patriotic Liberation Movement", in which he outlines seven core principles: 1) revolutionary internationalism, 2) democracy and self-determination, 3) socialism, 4) feminism, 5) environmentalism, 6) anti-imperialism, and 7) peace and disarmament.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Melkonian |first=Monte |title=The right to struggle : selected writings by Monte Melkonian on the Armenian national question |date=1993 |publisher=Sardarabad Collective |others=Markar Melkonian |isbn=0-9641569-1-1 |edition=2nd |location=San Francisco, Calif. (P.O. Box 422286, San Francisco 94142-2286) |pages=154–157 |oclc=29999164}}</ref>

By the early 1990s, he saw Karabakh as a "sacred cause".{{sfn|de Waal|2013|p=220}} He is quoted as saying, "If we lose Karabakh, we turn the final page of our people's history."{{sfn|Krikorian|2007|p=241}} He was quoted by ''The Moscow Times'' in 1993: "There's bound to be a coup d'etat in Turkey sometime in the next 10 years. During the immediate post-coup chaos, we'll take Nakhichevan - easy!"<ref>{{cite news |last1=Rowell |first1=Alexis |title=Armenia's Push for Land |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/archive/armenias-push-for-land |work=The Moscow Times |date=August 6, 1993 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231010073756/https://www.themoscowtimes.com/archive/armenias-push-for-land |archive-date=10 October 2023}}</ref>

Melkonian was also an internationalist.<ref name="Afeyan"/> In an article titled "Imperialism in the New World Order" he declared his support for socialist movements in Palestine, South Africa, Central America and elsewhere.<ref name="markar avo 2011"/> He also espoused environmentalism from an anti-capitalist perspective.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Simonyan|first1=Anahit|title=Հայաստանն օտար ներդրողների համար դարձել է համեղ պատառ|url=http://www.asparez.am/news-hy/hayastann_otar_nerkroxneri_hamr-hy/|work=Asparez|date=15 November 2013|language=hy}}</ref> According to one author his economic views were influenced by the Beirut-based Armenian Marxist economist Alexander Yenikomshian.<ref name="LATimes"/>

Maile Melkonian, Melkonian's sister, wrote in 1997 that he was never associated with and was not a supporter of the views of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaks).<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Melkonian|first1=Maile|title=The Facts of the Case|journal=Foreign Affairs|date=November–December 1997|volume=76|issue=6|pages=184|doi=10.2307/20048351|jstor=20048351}}</ref>

===Anti-smoking and anti-alcohol stance=== Melkonian was said to have led an exemplary life by not smoking and drinking.<ref name="Bonner" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Melkonian |first=Monte |title=The right to struggle : selected writings by Monte Melkonian on the Armenian national question |date=1993 |publisher=Sardarabad Collective |others=Markar Melkonian |isbn=0-9641569-1-1 |edition=2nd |location=San Francisco, Calif. (P.O. Box 422286, San Francisco 94142-2286) |pages=xvi |oclc=29999164}}</ref> Melkonian advocated that revolutionary socialists must lead "practical self-disciplined lives" and avoid "self-destructive habits" such as smoking or drinking alcohol: "By severely diminishing a person's self-discipline, these dependencies inhibit a person from becoming a member of the vanguard, and especially a guerrilla or fedaii."<ref name=":1" /> When he joined in toasts, he is said to have raised a glass of yogurt.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Melkonian|first=Monte|title=The Right to Struggle: Selected Writings by Monte Melkonian on the Armenian National Question|publisher=Sardarabad Collective|year=1993|location=San Francisco|pages=xvi}}</ref> Melkonian is widely known to have forbidden his soldiers consumption of alcohol.{{sfn|de Waal|2013|p=220}} He also established a policy of collecting a tax in kind on Martuni wine, in the form of diesel and ammunition for his fighters.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Melkonian|first1=Monte|editor1-last=Melkonian|editor1-first=Markar|title=The Right to Struggle: Selected Writings by Monte Melkonian on the Armenian National Question|date=1993|publisher=Sardarabad Collective|page=xvi|edition=2nd}}</ref> Melkonian also burned cultivated fields of cannabis in Karabakh.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

==Personal life== Melkonian married his long-time girlfriend Seta Kebranian at the Geghard monastery in Armenia in August 1991. They had met in the late 1970s in Lebanon. In a 1993 interview, Melkonian said that they had had no time to start a family. He stated, "We'll settle down when the Armenian people's struggle is over."<ref name="Loiko McWilliam"/>

As of 2013 Seta, an activist and a lecturer, resided in Anchorage, Alaska with her husband Joel Condon who is a professor of architecture at the University of Alaska Anchorage.<ref>{{cite web|title=Liberty by Joel Condon|url=http://www.bobbysandstrust.com/archives/2476|publisher=Bobby Sands Trust|date=4 December 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Remembering Monte Melkonian|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YHQfni3h78 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/8YHQfni3h78 |archive-date=2021-12-19 |url-status=live|publisher=CivilNet|date=20 June 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

==Awards== sources:<ref name="National Hero"/><ref name="mil.am"/> {| class="wikitable" ! Country ! colspan="2" |Award ! Date |- | Nagorno-Karabakh | | Order of the Combat Cross of the First Degree | 23 November 1993 |- | Armenia | 50x50px | National Hero of Armenia | 20 September 1996 |- | Nagorno-Karabakh | | Hero of Artsakh | 21 September 1999 |- |}

==References==

=== Notes === {{Notelist}}

=== Citations === {{Reflist|2|refs=

<ref name="Bonner">{{cite news|last1=Bonner|first1=Raymond|author-link1=Raymond Bonner|title=Foreigners Fight Again in the Embattled Caucasus|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/04/world/foreigners-fight-again-in-the-embattled-caucasus.html|work=The New York Times|date=4 August 1993}}</ref>

<ref name="markar avo 2011">{{cite news|last=Melkonian|first=Markar|title=Which "Avo" was Monte?|url=http://hetq.am/eng/news/6986/which-avo-was-monte.html|work=Hetq|date=25 November 2011}}</ref>

<ref name="LATimes">{{cite news|last1=Arax|first1=Mark|title=The Riddle of Monte Melkonian|work=Los Angeles Times|date=9 October 1993}} p. [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-09-mn-43923-story.html 1], [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-09-mn-43923-story.html 2], [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-09-mn-43923-story.html 3], [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-09-mn-43923-story.html 4]</ref>

<ref name="Afeyan">{{cite web|last1=Afeyan|first1=Bedros|title=Review of two books about Monte Melkonian|url=http://groong.usc.edu/tcc/tcc-20050404.html|website=Armenian News Network / Groong|publisher=University of Southern California|date=4 April 2005|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303232123/http://groong.usc.edu/tcc/tcc-20050404.html|archive-date=3 March 2016}}</ref>

<ref name="National Hero">{{cite web|title=National Hero of Armenia|url=http://www.president.am/en/highest-title/|publisher=The Office to the President of Armenia|access-date=2015-09-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924081424/http://www.president.am/en/highest-title/|archive-date=2015-09-24|url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name="mil.am">{{cite web|title=Մոնթե Մելքոնյան [Monte Melkonian]|url=http://www.mil.am/hy/68/72/308|website=mil.am|publisher=Defense Ministry of Armenia|language=hy|date=6 July 2015}}</ref>

<ref name="Loiko McWilliam">{{cite news|last1=Loiko|first1=Sergei|last2=McWilliam|first2=Ian|title=Fresno-Born Karabakh Commander Dies on Battlefield|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-06-15-mn-3260-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times|date=15 June 1993}}</ref>

<ref name="hrw">{{cite book|author1=Human Rights Watch|author-link=Human Rights Watch|title=Seven Years of Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh|date=1994|isbn=978-1-56432-142-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/azerbaijanseveny00huma/page/113 113–4]|publisher=Human Rights Watch |url=https://archive.org/details/azerbaijanseveny00huma/page/113|quote=The most famous of them, Monte Melkonian of Vesalia, California, became a legend in Karabakh and Armenia by the time he was killed in fighting in June 1993; an estimated 50,000 people including the Armenian President, Ter-Petrosyan attended his funeral in Yerevan.}}</ref>

<ref name="Marsden">{{cite news|last1=Marsden|first1=Philip|author-link1=Philip Marsden|title=Road to revolution: PhD? I'd rather be a terrorist|work=The Times|date=12 March 2005|location=London}}</ref>

}}

==Bibliography== {{refbegin}} *{{cite book|author-link=Thomas de Waal|last=de Waal|first=Thomas|year=2003|title=Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War|location=New York|publisher=New York University Press}} *{{cite book|last=de Waal|first=Thomas|title=Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War|date=2013|publisher=NYU Press|edition=2nd (revised and updated)}} *{{cite book|last=Melkonian|first=Markar|year=2005|title=My Brother's Road, An American's Fateful Journey to Armenia|location=New York|publisher=I.B. Tauris|title-link=My Brother's Road}} *Melkonian, Monte (1990). ''The Right to Struggle: Selected Writings of Monte Melkonian on the Armenian National Question''. San Francisco: Sardarabad Collective *{{cite book|last1=Krikorian|first1=Michael|editor1-last=von Voss|editor1-first=Huberta|title=Portraits of Hope: Armenians in the Contemporary World|contribution="Excuse me, how do I get to the front?" The Brothers Monte and Markar Melkonian (Los Angeles)|date=2007|publisher=Berghahn Books|isbn=978-1-84545-257-5|pages=237–242}} *{{cite journal|last=Vorbach|first=Joseph E.|title=Monte Melkonian: Armenian revolutionary leader|journal=Terrorism and Political Violence|date=1994|volume=6|issue=2|pages=178–195|doi=10.1080/09546559408427253}} *{{cite book|last=Zurcher|first=Christopher|year=2009|title=The Post-Soviet Wars: Rebellion, Ethnic Conflict, and Nationhood in the Caucasus|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-0-81479-724-2}} {{refend}}

==External links== {{wikiquote}} *{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20020311125850/http://www.melkonian.org/ The Monte Melkonian Fund]}} is a non-profit charity established in 1995 and is dedicated in Melkonian's honor. *{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20021212081514/http://www.melkonian.org/gal/ Gallery of Monte Melkonian]}} on the Melkonian Fund Website include photos of his youth, years spent in Lebanon and Karabakh. *[http://www.videoyan.com/video/11184/Monte-Melkonian/ Monte Melkonian Video] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090813215040/http://www.videoyan.com/video/11184/Monte-Melkonian |date=2009-08-13 }} *{{YouTube|gaqMDHFY-PE|Documentary video about Monte}}, including an interview with his wife {{in lang|hy}} *2-part documentary video about Monte, including rare interviews, on Google Video: [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3342272947609828426 Part 1] and [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4771023778212798271 Part 2] {{in lang|hy}}

{{Authority control}} {{National Heroes of Armenia}} {{National Heroes of Artsakh}} {{Armenian nationalism}} {{Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melkonian, Monte}} Category:1957 births Category:1993 deaths Category:American emigrants to Armenia Category:American emigrants to Iran Category:American people of Armenian descent Category:Armenian colonels Category:Armenian communists Category:Armenian military personnel of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War Category:Armenian nationalists Category:Armenian revolutionaries Category:Armenian socialists Category:Burials at Yerablur Category:National Heroes of Armenia Category:People from Visalia, California Category:People of the Iranian Revolution Category:People of the Lebanese Civil War Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:Armenian people imprisoned abroad Category:Foreign nationals imprisoned in France