Monte Melkonian

Monte Melkonian (born November 25, 1957 – June 12, 1993) was an American-Armenian military commander. in the Nagorno-Karabakh war. He is largely known for major military victories against Azerbaijan from the late autumn of 1992. Melkonian had no prior service record in any country's army before being placed in command of an estimated 4,000 men in the war. He had largely built his military education beginning from the late 1970s and 1980s where he fought against the various splintering factions in the Lebanese Civil War, against Israeli troops in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and was a member of the Armenian terror organization ASALA.

Monte Melkonian
2008 postal card honoring Melkonian
Born	(1957-11-25)November 25, 1957 Visalia, California, United States
Died	June 12, 1993(1993-06-12) (aged 35) Merzili, Agdam District, Azerbaijan
Buried at	Yerablur
Allegiance	ASALA  Nagorno-Karabakh
Service/branch	Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army
Years of service	1979–1993
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel
Commands held	Martuni Detachment
Battles/wars	Iranian Revolution Lebanese Civil War 1982 Lebanon War First Nagorno-Karabakh War
Awards	National Hero of Armenia
Relations	Markar Melkonian (brother)
Other work	The Right to Struggle (selected writings printed posthumously in 1993)

Other websites

• 2 part documentary video about Monte, including rare interviews, on Google Video: Part 1 and Part 2. (In Armenian.)
• 5 part interview with Monte Melkonian, in English, on YouTube: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4,Part 5