Monte Melkonian

Monte Melkonian, born on November twenty-fifth, nineteen fifty-seven, in California, was an Armenian-American revolutionary and a prominent left-wing nationalist militant. He became a notable commander in the Artsakh Defense Army and was posthumously honored as a National Hero of Armenia in nineteen ninety-six.

In nineteen seventy-eight, amidst the Iranian Revolution, Melkonian left the United States to teach in Iran. His political activism led him to participate in demonstrations against the regime of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Following this, he traveled to Lebanon, where he joined a Beirut-based Armenian militia during the Lebanese Civil War, becoming actively involved in the conflict.

Melkonian's military experience was primarily shaped by his involvement with ASALA, where he fought against various right-wing Lebanese militias and participated in combat against Israel during the nineteen eighty-two Lebanon War. Despite having no formal military service record prior to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, he commanded approximately four thousand Armenian troops during the conflict.

Throughout his military career, Melkonian adopted several aliases, including 'Abu Sindi,' 'Timothy Sean McCormack,' and 'Saro.' His soldiers often referred to him as Avo. Tragically, on June twelfth, nineteen ninety-three, he was killed by Azerbaijani soldiers while surveying the village of Mərzili. He was laid to rest at Yerablur, a military cemetery in Yerevan, Armenia.