32 Facts About Monte Melkonian

Monte Melkonian was an Armenian-American revolutionary and left-wing nationalist militant.

Monte Melkonian 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.

Monte Melkonian was active in Bourj Hammoud, and was one of the planners of the Turkish consulate attack in Paris in 1981.

Monte Melkonian was released in 1989 and acquired a visa to travel to Armenia in 1990.

Monte Melkonian 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.

Monte Melkonian was born on 25 November 1957, at Visalia Municipal Hospital in Visalia, California, to Charles and Zabel Monte Melkonian.

Monte Melkonian was the third of four children born to a self-employed cabinet maker and an elementary-school teacher.

Monte Melkonian 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.

Monte Melkonian finished his degree in under three years, and was accepted to the archaeology graduate program at the University of Oxford.

Monte Melkonian decided against this and chose to travel abroad again, this time to the Middle East.

Berkeley in the spring of 1978, Monte Melkonian travelled to Iran, where he taught English and participated in the movement to overthrow the Shah.

Monte Melkonian 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.

Monte 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.

Monte Melkonian began working behind the lines in Phalangist controlled territory, on behalf of the "Leftist and Arab" Lebanese National Movement.

On 31 July 1980 in Athens, Monte Melkonian assassinated the Administrative Attache of Turkish Embassy in Greece, Galip Ozmen, considered by Monte 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.

Monte Melkonian shot the passengers in the front and back seats who were obscured by darkly tinted window glass, believing them to be other diplomats.

Monte 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.

Monte 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.

Monte Melkonian spent over three years in Fresnes and Poissy prisons.

Monte Melkonian was released in early 1989 and sent from France to South Yemen, where he was reunited with his girlfriend Seta.

On 6 October 1990, Monte Melkonian arrived in what was then still the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic.

New political forces bent on dismantling the Soviet Union were taking Armenia in a direction that Monte Melkonian believed was bound to exacerbate the crisis and produce more problems.

On 12 or 14 September 1991, Monte Melkonian travelled to the Shahumian region, where he fought for three months in the fall of 1991.

On February 4,1992, Monte Melkonian arrived in Martuni as the regional commander.

Monte Melkonian was killed in the abandoned village of Merzili in the early afternoon of 12 June 1993 during the Battle of Aghdam.

Monte Melkonian was buried with full military honours 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.

Monte Melkonian had become a legend in Armenia and Karabakh by the time of his death.

Monte Melkonian 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 under which Armenians could live freely in their historic homeland, which includes areas in present day Turkey.

Monte Melkonian was said to have led an exemplary life by not smoking and drinking.

Monte Melkonian is widely known to have forbidden his soldiers consumption of alcohol.

Monte Melkonian established a policy of collecting a tax in kind on Martuni wine, in the form of diesel and ammunition for his fighters.

Monte Melkonian married his long-time girlfriend Seta Kebranian at the Geghard monastery in Armenia in August 1991.