Monte melkonian biography definition

Armenian revolutionary (1957–1993)

Monte Melkonian (Armenian: Մոնթէ Մելքոնեան;^[b] 25 November 1957 – 12 June 1993) was an Armenian-American revolutionary and left-wing nationalist militant.

He was a commander in the Artsakh Defence Army and was killed while fighting against Azerbaijan in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Born in California, Melkonian left the United States and arrived in Iran as a teacher in 1978, amidst the Iranian Revolution.

He 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. Melkonian was active in Bourj Hammoud, and was one of the planners of the Turkish consulate attack in Paris in 1981.^[3] He was later arrested and imprisoned in France.

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

Prior to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, during which he commanded an estimated 4