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Monte Melkonian | |
|---|---|
 Melkonian in the town ofMartuni during theFirst Nagorno-Karabakh War, January 1993 | |
| Native name | Մոնթէ Մելքոնեան |
| Nickname(s) | Avo (Աւօ) |
| Born | (1957-11-25)25 November 1957 Visalia,California, United States |
| Died | 12 June 1993(1993-06-12) (aged 35) Mərzili,Aghdam, Azerbaijan |
| Buried | Yerablur, Armenia |
| Allegiance | ASALA (1980–1988) Artsakh (1988–1993) |
| Years of service | 1978–1993 |
| Battles / wars | |
| Awards |  National Hero of Armenia (1996) |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Relations | Markar Melkonian (brother) |
| Other work | The Right to Struggle: Selected Writings of Monte Melkonian on the Armenian National Question (1993)[a] |
Monte Melkonian (Armenian:Մոնթէ Մելքոնեան;[b] 25 November 1957 – 12 June 1993) was anArmenian-American revolutionary[1] andleft-wing nationalist militant. He was a commander in theArtsakh Defence Army and was killed while fighting againstAzerbaijan in theFirst Nagorno-Karabakh War.[2]
Born inCalifornia, Melkonian left theUnited States and arrived inIran as a teacher in 1978, amidst theIranian Revolution. He took part in demonstrations againstMohammed Reza Pahlavi, and subsequently travelled toLebanon to serve with aBeirut-based Armenian militia fighting in theLebanese Civil War. Melkonian was active inBourj Hammoud, and was one of the planners of theTurkish consulate attack in Paris in 1981.[3] He was later arrested and imprisoned inFrance. He was released in 1989 and acquired a visa to travel toArmenia 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.[4] Instead, his military experience came from his activity inASALA during theLebanese Civil War. With ASALA, Melkonian fought against various right-wing Lebanese militias in and around Beirut, and had also taken part in combat againstIsrael during the1982 Lebanon War.
Over the course of his military career, Melkonian had adopted a number of aliases, including "Abu Sindi," "Timothy Sean McCormack," and "Saro."[5] During the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, many of the Armenian soldiers under his command referred to him asAvo (Աւօ). On 12 June 1993, Melkonian was killed by Azerbaijani soldiers while he was surveying the village ofMərzili with five other Armenian soldiers after a battle.[6] He was buried atYerablur, a military cemetery in the capital city of ArmeniaYerevan, and was posthumously conferred the title ofNational Hero of Armenia in 1996.[7]
Melkonian was born on 25 November 1957, at Visalia Municipal Hospital inVisalia,California, to Charles (1918−2006)[8] and Zabel Melkonian (1920−2012).[9] He was the third of four children born to a self-employed cabinet maker and an elementary-school teacher.[10] By all accounts, Melkonian was described as an all-American child who joined theBoy Scouts and was a pitcher inLittle League baseball.[11] He also played the clarinet.[12] 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 toEurope in 1969.[13] In the spring of that year, the family also travelled acrossTurkey to visit the town ofMerzifon, 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 theArmenian genocide in 1915. This trip apparently also deeply moved Melkonian.[14][11] 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.[15]
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, visitingVietnam and Japan, where he learned local customs and picked up on some of the language.[16][17] After his stint abroad, he returned to the US and enrolled at theUniversity of California, Berkeley with a Regents Scholarship, majoring inancient Asian history andArchaeology. He finished his degree in under three years, and was accepted to the archaeology graduate program at theUniversity of Oxford. He decided against this, however, and chose to travel abroad again, this time to the Middle East.[17]
After graduating from U.C. Berkeley in the spring of 1978, Melkonian travelled toIran, where he taught English and participated in the movement tooverthrow the Shah. He helped organize a teachers' strike at his school inTehran, and was in the vicinity ofJaleh Square when the Shah's troops opened fire on protesters, killing and injuring many. Later, he found his way toIranian Kurdistan, whereKurdish partisans made a deep impression on him. Years later, in southern Lebanon, he occasionally wore the uniform of the Kurdishpeshmerga which he was given in Iranian Kurdistan.
In the fall of 1978, Melkonian made his way toBeirut, the capital ofLebanon, in time to participate in the defence of the Armenian quarter against the right-wingPhalange forces. While he was living in East Beirut, Melkonian worked underground with individual members of theSocial Democrat Hunchakian Party and theLebanese Communist Party. Although he never professed an allegiance to theArmenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), he was a member of the Armenian militia that defended positions in and aroundBourj 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 againstPhalange forces. He also began working behind the lines inPhalangist 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 somePersian andKurdish).[citation needed]
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 inAthens, Melkonian assassinated the Administrative Attaché ofTurkish Embassy inGreece,Galip Ozmen, considered by Melkonian to be a legitimate target for representing a regime that committed theArmenian 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.[18]
Melkonian carried out armed operations inRome,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 Turkishembassy inParis 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 toLebanon where he revealed his identity as Monte Melkonian.[citation needed]
In mid-July 1983, ASALA violently split into two factions, one opposed to the group's despotic leader, whosenom de guerre wasHagop 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.
In the aftermath of this split, Melkonian spent over two years underground, first in Lebanon and later inFrance. 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 inFresnes andPoissy prisons. He was released in early 1989 and sent from France toSouth Yemen, where he was reunited with his girlfriendSeta. Together they spent year and a half living underground in various countries ofeastern Europe in relative poverty, as oneEastern Bloc regime after another disintegrated.
On 6 October 1990, Melkonian arrived in what was then still theArmenian 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 onUrartian cave tombs, which was posthumously published in 1995.[19]
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."[20]
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 onNagorno-Karabakh. "If we lose [Karabakh]," the bulletin of theNagorno-Karabakh Defense Forces quoted him as saying, "we turn the final page of our people's history."[21] He believed that, if Azeri forces succeeded in deporting Armenians from Karabakh, they would advance onZangezur and other regions of Armenia.[citation needed]
On 12 or 14 September 1991, Melkonian travelled to theShahumian 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.[citation needed]
On February 4, 1992, Melkonian arrived inMartuni 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 withGRAD missiles.[citation needed]
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 ofKalbajar ofAzerbaijan which lies between Armenia and the formerNKAO. Armenian forces captured the region in four days of heavy fighting, sustaining far fewer fatalities than the enemy.[22]
Melkonian was killed in the abandoned village of Merzili in the early afternoon of 12 June 1993[23] during theBattle 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.[6]
Melkonian was buried with full military honours on 19 June 1993, atYerablur military cemetery in the outskirts of Yerevan, where his coffin was brought from theSurb Zoravar Church in the city centre.[24] Some 50,000 to 100,000 people (some reports put the figure as high as 250,000),[25] including Armenian PresidentLevon Ter-Petrosyan,[11][26][27] acting Defense MinisterVazgen Manukyan, Deputy Foreign MinisterGerard Libaridian, other officials, and parliamentarians attended his funeral.[24]
The Karabakh town ofMartuni was tentatively renamed Monteaberd[24][28][29]Armenian:Մոնթեաբերդ;[30][31] literally "Fort Monte") in his honour.[25] A statue of Melkonian was present in the town throughout theRepublic of Artsakh era, but both Armenian and Azeri media reported on its removal after the2023 Azeri takeover, with Azeri media such asTuran andTrend claiming it was removed by the Armenians to prevent the Azeris from doing so.[32][33][34]
In 1993, theMonte Melkonian Military Academy was established in Yerevan.[35]
Statues of Melkonian have been erected in Yerevan'sVictory Park, and in the towns ofDilijan (2017)[36][37] andVardenis (2021).[38] In 2021, the village ofShahumyani Trchnafabrika was renamed Monteavan after him.[39]
Melkonian had become a legend in Armenia and Karabakh by the time of his death.[27] Due to his international socialist and Armenian nationalist views, one author described him as a mix between the early 20th century Armenian military commanderAndranik and Marxist revolutionaryChe Guevara.[40]Thomas de Waal described him as a "professional warrior and an extreme Armenian nationalist"[41] who is "the most celebrated Armenian commander" of the Nagorno-Karabakh War.[2]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."[26]Razmik Panossian wrote that Melkonian was "a charismatic and very capable commander."[42]
Melkonian was anArmenian nationalist and arevolutionary socialist.[43][40] Throughout his life he sympathized withMarxism–Leninism, which was also the ideology of ASALA.[44][45] Vorbach wrote in 1994 that his writings "expose him as an Armenian nationalist and a committed socialist of the Marxist-Leninist variety."[46] According to his brother he "had not always been acommunist, but he had never been anex-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.[20]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."[47] In the 1980s he advocated for the Soviet takeover ofTurkey's formerly Armenian populated areas and its unification with Soviet Armenia.[11] 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"[48] and considered the option of Armenianself-determination within a revolutionary Turkish or Kurdish state.[49] 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.[11] Vorbach summarized his views on Turkey:[50]
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.[51]
By the early 1990s, he saw Karabakh as a "sacred cause".[41] He is quoted as saying, "If we lose Karabakh, we turn the final page of our people's history."[52] He was quoted byThe 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!"[53]
Melkonian was also aninternationalist.[40] In an article titled "Imperialism in the New World Order" he declared his support for socialist movements inPalestine,South Africa, Central America and elsewhere.[20] He also espousedenvironmentalism from ananti-capitalist perspective.[54] According to one author his economic views were influenced by the Beirut-based Armenian Marxist economistAlexander Yenikomshian.[11]
Maile Melkonian, Melkonian's sister, wrote in 1997 that he was never associated with and was not a supporter of the views of theArmenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaks).[55]
Melkonian was said to have led an exemplary life by not smoking and drinking.[26][56] 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 orfedaii."[56] When he joined in toasts, he is said to have raised a glass of yogurt.[57] Melkonian is widely known to have forbidden his soldiers consumption of alcohol.[41] He also established a policy of collecting a tax in kind on Martuni wine, in the form of diesel and ammunition for his fighters.[58] Melkonian also burned cultivated fields of cannabis inKarabakh.[5][56]
Melkonian married his long-time girlfriendSeta Kebranian at theGeghard 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."[59]
As of 2013 Seta, an activist and a lecturer, resided inAnchorage, Alaska with her husband Joel Condon who is a professor of architecture at theUniversity of Alaska Anchorage.[60][61]
| Country | Award | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nagorno-Karabakh | Order of the Combat Cross of the First Degree | 23 November 1993 | |
| Armenia |  | National Hero of Armenia | 20 September 1996 |
| Nagorno-Karabakh | Hero of Artsakh | 21 September 1999 | |
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.
Մոնթեաբերդ-Մարտունու
Երախտապարտ Արցախում նրա անունով են կոչել Մարտունու շրջկենտրոնը` վերանվանելով Մոնթեաբերդ
Արմավիրի մարզի Մոնթեավանի (մինչև խոշորացումը՝ Շահումյանի թռչնաֆաբրիկա)...
...Californian-born Armenian nationalist commander Monte Melkonian...
...throughout his lifetime Monte Melkonian sincerely sympathized with the theory of Marxism-Leninism.
ASALA was Marxist-Leninist and one of its leaders, the Armenian-American Monte Melkonian...
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