Monte “ Avo ” Melkonyan ( Armenian Մոնթէ “Ավօ” Մելքոնեան ; November 25, 1957 , Visalia , USA - June 12, 1993 , Marzili , Nagorno-Karabakh ) - National Hero of Armenia [2] and hero of Artsakh [3] , an active participant in the Karabakh war , one of the organizers and leaders of the Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh [4] .
| Monte Melkonyan | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Մոնթե Մելքոնյան | |||
 Postage stamp dedicated to Melkonyan | |||
| Nickname | Avo ( Armenian "«ո" ) | ||
| Date of Birth | |||
| Place of Birth | |||
| Date of death | |||
| Place of death | |||
| Affiliation |  Lebanon National MovementAsala  Nagorno-Karabakh Republic | ||
| Type of army | |||
| Years of service | 1978-1980 ASALA 1980-1985 1990-1993 | ||
| Rank | Lieutenant colonel | ||
| Commanded | |||
| Battles / wars | Lebanon Civil War , Operation Van , Karabakh War | ||
| Awards and prizes |
| ||
| Retired | died in battle | ||
Prior to that, he was a member of the [5] [6] [7] ASALA combat organization, the head of ASALA-RM (RM - revolutionary movement) [8] [9] [10] , a participant in the civil war in Lebanon . Known by the nicknames "Abu Cindy", "Saro", "Timothy Sean McCormack" (Timothy Sean McCormack) and "Commander Avo."
In 1996, Monte Melkonyan was posthumously awarded the highest honorary title “ National Hero of Armenia ” [11] .
For his services to the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, he was awarded the highest title " Hero of Artsakh " with the award of the Order of the Golden Eagle (1999) [12] .
Content
Biography
Young years
Monte Melkonyan was born on November 25, 1957 in the city of Visalia ( California ). He was the third child in the family of Americans of Armenian descent Charles Melkonyan (1918−2006) and Zabel Melkonyan (1920−2012). Parents were destined to survive the son who glorified their family.
In 1969, the Melkonyan family made a one-year trip to European countries. During the trip, the 11-year-old Monte met with representatives of the Spyurk , and - as his brother claims, Markp Melkonyan - first thought about his Armenian identity. Like all American Armenians, the Melkonyans negatively perceived the rapprochement of the US and Turkey through NATO . However, in a paradoxical way, it was thanks to the American-Turkish friendship that this family was able to freely visit Anatolia after the European tour. US citizens are not threatened in this harsh land. Their path lay in the city of Merzifon , where grandfather and grandmother Zabel Melkonyan were born. Before the genocide of 1915, 17 thousand Armenians lived here. In the spring of 1970, only three Armenian families lived here, and only one of them agreed to meet with the Melkonyans ... As Monte later told his wife Seda:
| After a visit to Merziphon, I was never the same ... I saw with my own eyes a place that had gone into oblivion. |
In 1975, Charles Melkonyan taught at the Armenian schools of Iran and Lebanon.
Monte Melkonyan graduated from the University of Berkeley with a degree in archeology and the history of Asia. The choice of profession was determined by the firm intention to return to the Middle East. In addition to Armenian and English , Melkonyan mastered seven languages - French , Spanish , Italian , Turkish , Persian , Kurdish and Japanese . For some time he trained in Japan.
After graduating from university in the spring of 1978 [13] , Monte left for Iran, where he taught English and took part in the anti-Shah movement . Monte held extreme left views and was tied. with the Hnchakyan Socialist Party. He helped organize strikes at his school in Tehran, and was in close proximity to Jaleh Square on the day when the Shah’s troops opened fire on protesters (later nicknamed “Black Friday”). But soon, due to the repression of the new regime, Ayatola Khomeini against the opposition, Monte moved to Iranian Kurdistan, where the activities of the Kurdish partisans made a deep impression on him. A few years later, while in southern Lebanon, Monte Melkonyan occasionally wore the Kurdish Peshmerga uniform obtained in Iranian Kurdistan.
Baptism of Fire in Lebanon
At the height of the Lebanese Civil War in 1978, Monte Melkonyan arrived in Beirut . At that time, a fratricidal conflict of local Armenians with the Maronites broke out in Lebanon . Melkonyan took part in the defense of the Armenian quarter from the phalangists of the Maronaite party Kataib attacking him. Then Melkonyan became a fighter of the Armenian militia in Burj Hamoud and for two years participated in street battles with phalangists. In early 1979, he met the Lebanese Armenian Seda (her marriage was signed on August 3, 1991).
Fighting and Wandering
In the spring of 1980, Monte Melkonyan joined the ASALA organization. Melkonyan carried out operations in Rome , Athens and helped prepare militants for Operation Van in September 1981. Due to disagreements regarding the ASALA fighting methods, Monte separated from the supporters of Hakob Hakobyan (aka Migran Migranyan or Harutyun Takushyan) and formed a new faction ASALA-RM . In November 1985, Melkonyan was arrested in Paris and sentenced to 6 years in prison for illegal possession of weapons and forgery of documents. In early 1989, he was released and deported to South Yemen [14] .
Participation in the Karabakh war
In 1991, immediately upon arrival in Karabakh , Melkonyan participated in the battles for the settlements of Buzluk , Manashid , Erkedzh , Shaumyan region. He was appointed chief of staff of the Kornidzor detachment.
In the summer of 1992, the Azerbaijani army, trying to capture the village of Machkalashen (considered the southern gate of Karabakh) and from there move further to Shusha , ran into a detachment of Monte Melkonyan. Having stopped the enemy, the fighters of Melkonyan thereby ensured the safety of Artsakh from the south.
Heading the Martuni defensive area , Monte successfully defended it the whole next year.
Then he participated in the Kelbajar operation, in battles in the territory of the Mardakert and Askeran regions.
Doom
Monte believed that the T-72 tanks were the key to victory in the Karabakh war. Each time, upon learning of the capture of another tank from the Azerbaijani forces, he personally traveled to inspect it. On June 12, 1993, in the village of Marzili, Monte and his soldiers collided with BMP and soldiers of Azerbaijani military formations. During the battle, Melkonyan was wounded in the head [15] and died. After his death, Armenian fighters delivered the body of Monte to Martuni [16] .
The farewell ceremony took place a week later - on June 19 Monte Melkonyan was buried in the “ Yerablur ” cemetery in Yerevan [17] [18] .
Memory
Posthumously awarded the highest ranks of Armenia - “ National Hero of Armenia ” (1996) and NKR - “ Hero of Artsakh ” (1999). Monte Melkonyan was named after: one of the military units of the Armed Forces of Armenia , a university and a school in the city of Yerevan , a bridge, a charitable foundation. Monuments were erected in Yerevan , in Hrazdan , in Martuni (Nagorno-Karabakh) . In Martuni, the football club is named after Avo.
According to some information, the inhabitants of Martuni expressed the opinion about renaming the district center in Monteaberd ( Armenian Մոնթէաբէրդ ), in honor of Monte Melkonyan. The renaming project was not supported by the NKR authorities, but the installation of a home-made road sign with the same name was recorded [19] .
Photos
Bust of Monte Melkonyan in Victory Park in Yerevan
Tombstone of Melkonyan
Artwork
- “Self-Criticism”
- “Avo with our eyes” Ավոն մեր աչքերով, 1994. Seyran Kamalyan
- “Selected Works on the Armenian Question” (Monte Melkonian AVO selected writings Armenian Question)
- “The Right to Struggle: Selected Writings of Monte Melkonian on the Armenian National Question”, 1993
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 German National Library , Berlin State Library , Bavarian State Library , etc. Record # 135887801 // General regulatory control (GND) - 2012—2016.
- ↑ National Hero of Armenia (inaccessible link) . Date of treatment February 22, 2014. Archived December 31, 2017.
- ↑ Encyclopedia of Armenian History, Monte Melkonyan
- ↑ BBC | Analytics | Chapter 13. June 1992 - September 1993 Escalation of conflict
- ↑ John E. Jessup. An encyclopedic dictionary of conflict and conflict resolution, 1945-1996. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998. ISBN 0-313-28112-2 , 9780313281129, p. 39
- ↑ Michel Wieviorka, David Gordon White. The making of terrorism. University of Chicago Press, 1993. ISBN 0-226-89650-1 , 9780226896502, p. 256
- ↑ Bruce Hoffman. Inside terrorism. Columbia University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-231-12699-9 , 9780231126991, p. 71
- ↑ Terrorist Group Profiles, DIANE Publishing, 1989, ISBN 1-56806-864-6 , 9781568068640 Google-books
- ↑ Christoph Zürcher. The post-Soviet wars: rebellion, ethnic conflict, and nationhood in the Caucasus. NYU Press, 2007. ISBN 0-8147-9709-1 , 9780814797099
- ↑ Reeva S. Simon, Philip Mattar, Richard W. Bulliet. Encyclopedia of the modern Middle East. Macmillan Reference USA, 1996. ISBN 0-02-897061-6 , 9780028970615
- ↑ National Heroes of Armenia (inaccessible link) . avitas.ru. Date of treatment March 29, 2016. Archived April 15, 2016.
- ↑ Mrav.Net - Shahumyan Karabakh History War Video Photos People - by Suren Divanyan - Shahumyan, Nagorno Karabakh Republic. "Monte Melkonyan - Hero of Artsakh"
- ↑ His thesis was dedicated to the medieval Kingdom of Van.
- ↑ Christoph Zürcher. The post-Soviet wars: rebellion, ethnic conflict, and nationhood in the Caucasus. - NYU Press, 2007 .-- P. 177. - ISBN 0-8147-9709-1 , 9780814797099.
- ↑ Participants in the events of how the criminal Monte Melkonyan Was killed . www.1news.az. Date of treatment March 29, 2016.
- ↑ Huberta von Voss // Portraits of hope: Armenians in the contemporary world // p 242 (340) Berghahn Books, 2007 ISBN 1-84545-257-7 , 9781845452575 [1]
But, on June 12, shortly before he was due to leave Karabakh to spend some time alone with beloved wife, monte received word that a Soviet T-72 tank had been captured. By now, Monte had become fascinated by tanks and was convinced they were the key to victory in Karabakh. So, whenever word reached him that a tank had been captured, he wanted to personally verify it. On June, he set of with his faithful driver komidas and four other fighters, to the village of Merzuli to check out the Russian tank
As they neared the village, they saw an armored personnel carrier with a turret-mounted canon and several soldiers milling about. Komidas asked the soldiers something in Armenian and by the bewildered look on their face he knew that he had stumbled on the enemy. A wild gunfight broke out: automatic weapons, the canon, hand grenades. Monte fired from his rifle. A canon round smashed into a wall near Melkonian and afoot-long piece of shrapnel tore into his head, killing the hero on the spot. Several other people were killed or wounded in the gunfight but Monte's body was retrieved by the wounded Komidas and other Armenian fighters and taken to Martuni. The town would later be renamed Monteapert, or Fort Monte.
- ↑ Funeral of Monte Melkonyan
- ↑ Funeral of Monte Melkonyan
- ↑ Nona Shahnazaryan article “National Narratives about the Nation: Ethnography of the Karabakh War”