Monte Melkonian

[LithiumC4]

Who is Monte Melkonian?

 

http://www.janfedayi.com/Monte/monte-aghdamsalyut.jpg

[MosJan]

MOnte Melkonyan web page

 

 

 

Monte (Avo) Melkonian was born near Fresno, California, on November 25, 1957. He graduated with honors from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in archaeology and Asian history. Turning down scholarships for graduate study at prestigious universities, he devoted the rest of his life to defending the underprivileged and voiceless. He taught at Armenian schools in Iran and Lebanon and helped defend local Armenian communities. Monte stated many times that those who genuinely want lasting peace should be prepared to work and fight for justice....

 

stop by at the web page for mor info.

 

 

Movses

[dragon]

I like the guy. He was a good man. Melkonian couple was like Serop Aghpur and Sossee Mayrig for Artsakh and Artsakhtsik. May be history is repeating itself...humm...I have to think about this more carefully

[Harut]

oh. you can think carefully too???

[MosJan]

iysor Hayastan yev Artsaxum nshvel e MOnte Avo Melkonyani mahvan tarelits@

 

Yerevanum batsvel e Monte melkonyanin n@virvats Photo n@karneri tsutsahandes

 

Amsi 12 k@lini Monteyi Mahvan 10 tarin

 

 

 

 

 

Movses

[khodja]

I visited his grave. It was a moving experience. It is in a serene and beautiful cemetery high on a hill.

[khodja]

I believe that he left behind a wife and a child.

[MosJan]

I visited his grave. It was a moving experience. It is in a serene and beautiful cemetery high on a hill.

yes it is

http://armenians.com/Gallery/Yerablur/MVC-037F.JPG

[khodja]

Yeah, that is the place. Thanks, MosJan for the photograph.

I forgot the name of the upscale street in Yerevan. Is it Sayat Nova?

[Arpa]

Yeah, that is the place. Thanks, MosJan for the photograph.

I forgot the name of the upscale street in Yerevan. Is it Sayat Nova?

It is Yerablur which is a contraction from Yerevan and blur/hill. It is a cemetary of sorts but it is more a pantheon.

See below.

 

Thanks Mosjan!

 

http://www.janfedayi.com/Yerablur/

 

PS. Can you think of a more friendly nickname?

At times you come on so human and sensitive, but I must confess that highly offensive, nonArmenian , Turkish nickname of yours is such a turnoff for me that I must hold my nose to read your posts, and I totally ignore it most of the time.

[khodja]

Thanks Arpa, and where is Garmir Blur?

 

As for the Khodja nickname, I do not understand why this is so offensive to you. It is the title which the Turks gave my great-grandfather. You should only know who his brother was, which I will not tell out of fear of the homicidal Turks who lurk here. Their hatred runs so deep that they are killing today defenseless old Armenian women both in Turkey and yes, even in the US.

 

The title meant little during the Genocide, as the Turks killed my great-grandfather's four sons and the majority of their families.

 

Please explain to me why this term is so offensive.

[Arpa]

Thanks Arpa, and where is Garmir Blur?

 

As for the Khodja nickname, I do not understand why this is so offensive to you. It is the title which the Turks gave my great-grandfather. You should only know who his brother was, which I will not tell out of fear of the homicidal Turks who lurk here. Their hatred runs so deep that they are killing today defenseless old Armenian women both in Turkey and yes, even in the US.

 

The title meant little during the Genocide, as the Turks killed my great-grandfather's four sons and the majority of their families.

 

Please explain to me why this term is so offensive.

I am trying my damnest to love you, but with a nickname like that I find it a difficult task.

Why am I offendede by "khoja"?

Everything aside, simply beacuse it is NOT an ARMENIAN word. See below.

It is mostlly used by the Turks now to mean "teacher", "elder", a "wise man".

Yes THEY may have bestowed the title on your ancestors. Ask Ara B, about the definition of "ottomanization", even if he may have it wrong.

 

"khoja" is not an Armenian term, it neverwas, it will never be. AS mentioned above the Turks are the one of the very few to use it. It is a disgusting term as it was those "khojas" who were distributing the murderous tools and inciting the mob to kill every Armenian.

 

THe origin of the word is shrouded in obscurity but judging from the sound of it I would dare say it has Chinese origin, no not mongolian as you would wish. Consider this; Xo Ja.

 

As to that idiot known as "Nasrettin Xoja". So what else is new? When did the Turk stop stealing other peoples' culture??!! It is none other than Kaj Nazar, albeit turkified to read Koja Nazar, or further yet, Koja Nazar(ettin).

Please find another more friendly nickname, pehaps then we will read your posts at their own value and not choke on our vomitous in the processs.

 

May I suggest "ishkhan"?

 

 

 

 

http://ismaili.net/~heritage/mirrors/202_k...ja/abdgkhja.htm

 

Here is an excerpt;

 

Historical Development of the "Khoja" Community:

 

In order to trace the origins of the Khoja community it is necessary to travel to India in which Hinduism is the predominant religion of its citizens. There are several different sects within Hinduism and its followers belong to a particular caste. The origins of the Khoja community lie in Shakti Marg Hinduism and are believed to have been from the kshatriya caste. Collectively, the Khojas formed the "Lohana community". However, in the early fourteenth century this community underwent a significant transformation when a Persian missionary converted the members to Islam and gave them the name "khwaja". Professor Sachedina explains how this took place. It is certain that the name khoja is the phonetic corruption of the Persian word Khwaja (meaning "master, teacher, respected, well-to-do person") that was given by the Persian Isma'ili missionary Pir Sadruddin to his Hindu converts to Islam in the fourteenth century. (Sachedina, 1988, p.3)

[Stormig]

I believe you have it wrong about Xodja Nasrettin. The character is known all the way to the other end of the continent, as Nasraddin Efendi by those Uighurs in Xinjiang you love so much and as the A Fan Ti as such by the Chinese who love them more.

[America-Hye]

Arpa,

 

OK, I have changed my moniker. There will be no more posts by Khodja (Hagarag). lease now tell me about Garmir Blur!

[Arpa]

Thanks Arpa, and where is Garmir Blur?

+++++++

Please explain to me why this term is so offensive.

 

Karmir Blur, literally, Red Hill is an ancient Urartuan site at the southern outskirts of Erevan, on the left bank of Hraztan River. It gets its nickname from the fact that when it it was incinerated the bricks turned fire.

 

I will describe the site in more detail but in the mean time enjoy this;

 

http://www.greatarmenia.netfirms.com/histo...rly_and_pre.htm

[America-Hye]

Thank you, Arpa, for the info. on Karmir Blur.

[Arpa]

Thank you, Arpa, for the info. on Karmir Blur.

AmericaHye!

Now I love you!!

[joseph parikian]

Congratulation America-Hye formarly known as " Khodja , Hagarag " for joining the " main stream armenians " .

My father was born in a small village called " Najar " some where close to " Dort Yol " his father was the Elder of the village and the ihabitents called him " Panos Agha " , he talled me that he remebers when the French General " Goro " visited their house when the french army was in Clicia , by the way my father is a surviver and he was born in 1908 he is still living with me .

Arpa thank you for your efort that resulted in " Khodja " choosing the users name America- Hye

 

[MosJan]

Arpa jan VartsQ`t Katar k@nqaHiyr jan

 

qanzi du mer America-Hye k@nqaHiyrn es uremn iren el tirutyun es anelu qani vro na qo Sanukn e

 

 

Dzerqert chtsava

[Vigil]

Melkonian Fund

http://www.melkonian.org/

Edited May 31, 2004 by Vigil

[espanol]

Photos

[espanol]

monument in yerevan

[Armen]

My Brothers road

 

By Markar Melkonian

 

http://www.mybrothersroad.com/

[MosJan]

Armen Shnorhakal em

 

Amsi 9in Pasadena en yeghel iyso rel Glandale

 

apsos

[Armen]

Times London Weekend Supplement

 

March 12, 2005

 

Road to revolution

 

PhD? I'd rather be a terrorist

by Philip Marsden

 

From Berkeley graduate to Armenian freedom fighter is a small step when history is on your side

 

I was too late. He was already dead. It was the summer of 1993 and I had come to the Armenian front line to interview Monte Melkonian. But a week or so earlier he had been caught in a skirmish near Agdam and died instantly from a shrapnel wound. At his headquarters, his men were in shock. In the canteen I sat down next to his aide. "Not there," he said reverently, "that was Monte's place."

 

During the previous four years Melkonian had become a legendary commander in the Armenians' post-Soviet war with the Azeris. What interested me about him was that, unlike the 4,000 fighters he commanded, he had not lived for 70 years under Soviet rule. He was from California, a third-generation Armenian, brought up in the most liberal state in the Union.

 

In recent years our idea of political radicalism has been overshadowed by the chilling logic of the suicide bomber. Even with the changes in the Middle East, it is unlikely that the divisions and destitution that breed such extremism will disappear overnight. Disenfranchised in Iraq's Sunni triangle or imprisoned in the hellish slums of Gaza, those who strap explosives to their bodies or drive a four-wheel bomb into a crowd have, by definition, nothing on this earth left to lose but their lives.

 

But there have always been other radicals, those who do have a choice, who are fewer in number but of much greater influence - those who throw away privilege or a good education for the life of political outlaw. Che Guevara swapped medical training for peasant-based revolution and died for it. The maverick Marxist Carlos the Jackal was born into a wealthy Venezuelan family but became an effective KGB-trained killer. George Habash passed out top of his class in paediatric medicine, but went underground to set up the guerrilla group PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine). And how different the world would look if Osama bin Laden, with a degree in civil engineering, had accepted a steady job in the family's property empire.

 

Monte Melkonian, too, had had professional options. In the late 1970s he graduated from Berkeley. He was a brilliant pupil who spoke several languages. His thesis on Urartian rock-tombs attracted the attention of Oxford University's archaeology department and earned him a place there to do his PhD. Instead he jumped on a plane for the Middle East. There began a 15-year odyssey that ended, cheek-down, on a dusty road in Armenian-occupied Azerbaijan.

 

Melkonian's career also reveals the profound shift in radical ideology - from revolutionary Marxism to nationalism, from the invocation of class struggle to the invocation of history or God. Like post-modernists everywhere, freedom fighters have rediscovered the power of tradition.

 

In My Brother's Road, Melkonian's elder sibling charts Monte's bloody passage through this period. He began as an agitator, organising strikes in Iran to help to topple the Shah. He then travelled north to Iranian Kurdistan and witnessed the disciplined Kurdish peshmerga rebels. But it was in the large Armenian quarter of Beirut that his involvement began to shift away from internationalism: in the free-for-all of the Lebanese civil war he first took up arms to defend his fellow Armenians.

 

I first heard about Melkonian in Beirut in the winter of 1991. The stories of his years there in the late 1970s seemed redolent of that era, a time of flared hipsters, radical chic, Patti Hearst and the Baader-Meinhof Gang. Gradually, Melkonian was being pulled towards a more particular cause, the one that haunts all Armenians. In 1915 decades of persecution had ended with the entire Armenian population of eastern Turkey being deported or murdered. More than a million died. Many of Melkonian's family were refugees from this time. It was a wound that did not heal with the passing years. In fact, faced by Turkish denial that it happened at all, resentment grew more intense.

 

During the 1980s, living the life of a tramp guerrilla, Melkonian wrote many articles and monographs. In these you can sense his ideology coming into conflict with a growing nationalism. With ever greater difficulty, he squeezed the Armenian question into the context of left-wing orthodoxy, believing for instance that Armenia's independence from the Soviet Union would be a terrible error.

 

Meanwhile, amid the anarchy of warring Lebanon, Melkonian's actions grew increasingly militant. He learnt to use aliases, false passports and a spectacular range of weapons. He crossed the path of Abu Nidal and Black September. He attended the joint training camps of the Bekaa Valley where the region's dispossessed - Kurds, Palestinians and Armenians - wriggled under barbed wire and dreamt of killing Turks and Israelis. In time Melkonian became involved with the vicious Armenian terrorist group ASALA (Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia). He set off a bomb in Milan. In Athens he leant into the car of a Turkish diplomat and shot him and, by mistake, his 14-year-old daughter (this was to become his greatest regret). He trained the Armenians who occupied the Turkish Embassy in Paris.

 

In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union was collapsing and the Armenians and Azeris of the south Caucasus were unpacking decades of mutual animosity. War was breaking out over the mountainous region of Artsax and Melkonian travelled to Soviet Armenia for the first time. There he was confronted with the reality of failed socialism. In the mountains, Armenian villagers took up hunting rifles to defend their homes and attack their Azeri neighbours. By the end of 1991, the hunting rifles were being replaced with heavier weapons as a full-scale war erupted, the first in a pattern of post-Soviet wars in the Caucasus and the Balkans.

 

Melkonian found his guerrilla training invaluable. In lecturing his fighters on the wider context of the fighting he turned not to ideology but to history. "Lose Artsax," he said, "and you will be turning the last page of Armenian history." He feared that, squeezed between Turkey and Turkic Azerbaijan, Armenians would be driven from their last pieces of territory and the work of 1915 would be completed.

 

His drawing on the grievances of the past was finding echoes throughout the old Soviet bloc and in the Middle East. In the north Caucasus in the 1990s, the Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev was stirring his people with talk of the "300-year war with the Russians", a war that began when Peter the Great landed in Dagestan in the 18th century. Milosevic had already woken the Serbs by invoking the Battle of Kosovo Polje 600 years earlier.

 

More recently, bin Laden has talked of the Crusades as having never ended while in Israel the old Zionism of kibbutzes and secularism has been eclipsed by the militant Jewish settlers of the West Bank. They, too, have a loss to correct, referring to the lands of Israel and Judah in the Time of the Kings, a full 3,000 years ago.

 

My Brother's Road; An American's Fateful Journey to Armenia by Markar Melkonian