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November 25 is the birthday of one of the greatest sons of Armenian people, national hero Monte Melkonyan. He would have turned 55 tomorrow. 

“Monte was a patriot and a knowledgeable man. I was fascinated by the fact that he was an Armenian with a capital A,” Vova Vardanov, intelligence officer at a special detachment, told reporters, recalling his acquaintance with Monte Melkonyan.

“He would never remember his birthday unless we reminded him,” said Hovsep Hakobyan, Monte’s companion-in-arms. He described Monte as an exceptionally honest man who believed in victory.

“He was the first to understand that the tactics of “detachment fights” could not lead to victory,” said Hakobyan.

Vahe Shahmuradyan, Monte’s close friend and companion-in-arms, for his part, said that in February 1993 they learnt from residents of Martuni region that they had raised funds for a monument to Monte Melkonyan. But Monte got very angry when he learnt it, and said that the Karabakh issue was much more important at the moment.

“If he were here now and we asked him to tell about himself, he would say that at the moment the most important thing is to understand the Karabakh issue,” said Shahmuradyan.

Monte Melkonyan born in Visalia (November 25, 1957), California and educated at Berkely, was a famed Armenian military commander in the Karabakh war. He is credited for major military victories against Azerbaijan from 1992-1993.

In April 1993, Melkonian was one of the chief military strategists who planned and led the operation to capture the region of Kalbajar, which lies between the Republic of Armenia and Karabakh. Armenian forces captured the region in four days of heavy fighting, sustaining far fewer fatalities than the enemy.

Monte was killed in the abandoned Azeri village of Merzuli in the early afternoon of June 12, 1993, with controversial reports about the circumstances of his death.

Monte was buried with full military honors on June 19, 1993 at Yerablur military cemetery in Yerevan, Armenia. His tomb is a popular place for visitors of Armenia to come and pay their respects to the great hero.