Re: Monte Melkonian
There is a dvd available about Monte :
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Guest replied -
Re: Monte Melkonian
4-part biographical film on Monte Melkonian (in Armenian) called "Ցեղին սիրտը" (Tseghin sirt@)
Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJmABjPj71U
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJjSZdaVCrU
Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU9q0NLKdmU
Part 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUAxiNgPtvILeave a comment:
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Re: Monte Melkonian
a video about Monte's lifeLeave a comment:
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Re: Monte Melkonian
...continuation from previous post
“CORRECTIONS & AMPLIFICATIONS: Everything I told Open Source about Monte Melkonian related to the period ending in April 1988, when “An Armenian Journey” premiered on PBS. I did not reference Monte’s exploits after he left prison. While I still consider Monte and myself to be the “same age”, he was, in fact, 6 years younger. Monte was an undergraduate at UC-Berkeley, not a graduate student there. I could have named the terrorist movement he started: ASALA-Revolutionary Movement. Finally, while Monte was convicted of illegal weapons possession, he was not charged with selling arms or illegal drugs. (I knew him to practice healthful living habits during his imprisonment.) I stand corrected and regret these errors and omissions.”
How can Ted Bogosian “stand corrected” if he has provided elusive responses to most of my questions and ignored the others. Isn’t there anything to correct in the following statement he made in the interview to Radio Open Source: “[Monte Melkonian] having masterminded several bombings in Europe, at Orly Airport”? I wrote as many as five paragraphs to tell the story behind this bombing as I know it in an attempt to set the record straight that Monte Melkonian not only was not involved in that attack but also did his utmost to prevent it (for more details read claim #5 in “Ted Bogosian And His Untruths About Armenian National Hero Monte Melkonian”). At the same time, I requested evidence from Mr. Bogosian to back up that claim. But instead of providing supporting evidence or retracting the false statement, he has shrouded the issue with silence. However, I’ll try to analyze each of Ted Bogosian’s responses pertaining to the matter.
“Monte was an undergraduate at UC-Berkeley, not a graduate student there.
What Mr. Bogosian had stated in the original interview was as follows: “And while I was at Duke, he was at Berkley, and when I went to graduate school, he went to graduate school in Beirut.” Monte never went to graduate school in Beirut, he was admitted to graduate school at Oxford but he never went there. Mr. Bogosian’s latest response is simply inadequate.
“I could have named the terrorist movement he started: ASALA-Revolutionary Movement.”
This correction refers to the following statement in the original interview: “[Monte Melkonian] started an Armenian terrorist movement.” I had identified this terrorist movement with ASALA, which was founded by Hagop Hagopian in 1975 and Monte Melkonian was recruited in 1980 (for more details read claim #4 in “Ted Bogosian And His Untruths About Armenian National Hero Monte Melkonian”). In his attempt to clarify this statement, Mr. Bogosian identified that terrorist movement as ASALA-Revolutionary Movement (ASALA-RM). I wonder what exactly made him conclude that ASALA-RM is a terrorist movement.
ASALA fell apart at Monte Melkonian’s initiative exactly because of the murderous deviation of Hagop Hagopian. The Orly Airport attack masterminded by Hagopian was the final blow to the unity of ASALA and the finishing touch to the split spearheaded by Monte Melkonian. ASALA-RM, the resulting splinter, in its early stage is best represented through the following collectively written statement: “We do not believe in benevolent friends, the inevitable triumph of justice, or covertly and cleverly manipulating the superpowers. If we are to achieve national self-determination, then we ourselves, the Armenian people, will have to fight for it. We believe in the power of organized masses and in the capacity of our people to determine their own future. We believe in revolution.” This movement that had no real members but quite a few sympathizers became the personification of Monte Melkonian who concentrated on raising awareness about the Armenian cause mainly through writing.
In the times when there’s no definitive international consensus on a legally binding definition of terrorism and terrorist organizations, Mr. Bogosian is making hasty conclusions. Personally, I am more inclined towards this viewpoint of a terrorist and counter-insurgency expert Bruce Hoffman: “Terrorism is a pejorative term. It is a word with intrinsically negative connotations that is generally applied to one’s enemies and opponents, or to those with whom one disagrees and would otherwise prefer to ignore.” Labeling a revolutionary movement as terrorist, while it seeks to unite the nation to struggle for self-determination, is usually the signature of governments targeted by such movements.
“Finally, while Monte was convicted of illegal weapons possession, he was not charged with selling arms or illegal drugs.”
This correction refers to my criticism targeting the following passage in his original interview: “…and [Monte Melkonian] started selling arms and started selling drugs…” None of the abundant evidence I have researched about Monte Melkonian maintains this claim. On the contrary, there are plenty of stories about Monte Melkonian being a fierce opponent to drug use or sale (for more details read claim #3 in “Ted Bogosian And His Untruths About Armenian National Hero Monte Melkonian”).
Ted Bogosian’s response to my question is a cunning way to steer away from the main point. His statement clearly implies that not being charged with selling arms or illegal drugs does not necessarily exclude the possibility of being involved in such activity. It is neither a retraction nor a clarification, but rather a fragile exit strategy due to lack of supporting evidence. I was not questioning only the validity of the charges Mr. Bogosian ascribed to Monte Melkonian’s case in the interview, but also his assertion that Monte Melkonian was involved in such activity. I’m still waiting for supporting evidence or unconditional retraction of these false statements.
Silence is a text easy to misread, as science-fiction writer Alfred Attanasio once said. Nevertheless, I want to believe that Mr. Bogosian had no malice in ascribing all of the aforementioned inaccuracies to Monte Melkonian, and I believe that his good will may well be manifested by a full-fledged direct response to each of the questions I singled out and any others he might be enthused to enlarge on. If Ted Bogosian is a man of his word and believes “we’re obligated to try” to “arrive at truth,” he must then fulfill his “pledge to correct any inadvertent errors and omissions” more elaborately with the following options as guidelines: a) present evidence to support his claims; b) retract the claims, for which he cannot provide supporting evidence; c) make corresponding arrangements to have the parts of radio interview that include the abovementioned misinformation about Monte Melkonian removed.
Leave a comment:
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Re: Monte Melkonian
Part 2 and more pwnage by Ara Manoogian (assisted by Markar Melkonian) regarding Ted Bogosian's falsifications.
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Ted Bogosian Loyal To His Untruths About Monte Melkonian
[ 2010/05/03 | 14:15 ] Feature Stories interview
By Ara Manoogian
“Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute,” Josh Billings, a 19th century popular American humorist, once famously said. But no matter how hard it appears to be, I have no other choice but to start a dialogue with a wall of silence, behind which Ted Bogosian the Truth Seeker has opted to hide. One circumstance, however, plays in my favor: the more garrulous your interlocutor has been preceding his avowed silence, the more vulnerable the latter becomes. This point was brilliantly proven by Ted Bogosian himself just a few days ago in what appeared to be a desperate attempt to stand corrected… by silencing the truth.
It’s been roughly a month since Radio Open Source host Christopher Lydon’s infamous interview with Ted Bogosian, an award-winning Armenian-American director, documentarian and journalist, was aired online and reposted throughout the web. The dissemination of the radio interview served the noble agenda of spreading the word about the heart of the Armenian cause – the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish denialism. However, his headlong pursuit of big truths was regrettably marred with loads of misinformation dishonoring Armenian national hero Monte Melkonian, one of the most revered martyrs of modern Armenian history who put his life at stake for the defense of fellow Armenians and their victory in an unequal war. Mr. Bogosian spoke from the viewpoint of a Truth Hound as he was presented at the onset of the interview. He made a number of serious unsupported claims that Monte Melkonian started a terrorist movement, selling arms and drugs, masterminding the Orly Airport attack of July 15, 1983 in Paris, as well as Turkish embassies in Europe and other businesses.
When the dead cannot stand up for their own defense, someone alive has to. Having spent over a decade researching the life and death of Monte Melkonian but never once coming across evidence that would support any such claim, I wrote Ted Bogosian an email on April 13, 2010. In my heartfelt message, I kindly asked him to share the supporting evidence I assumed he would have for the claims regarding Monte Melkonian he made in the interview. In expectation of never-before-seen evidence I refrained from repudiating any of his claims based on my own research.
Four days of Ted Bogosian’s absolute silence and/or complete indifference – thus, lack of supporting evidence for his claims – compelled me to set the record straight based on existing evidence. I wrote an article and submitted it to Hetq, a leading newspaper of investigative journalism in Armenia. At the same time, I wrote Mr. Bogosian another email as a reminder for a response to my previous letter. But no reply followed. As a next step, I posted the whole article as a comment under his interview at Radio Open Source website and Huffington post to make sure he receives my message. Then I embarked on a mission to make sure my refutation of Ted Bogosian’s untruths catches up with the speed at which his interview with dubious truths was spreading online.
Although a couple of people had already voiced their discontent with Bogosian’s inaccurate claims about Monte Melkonian’s pre-Artsakh past prior to the posting of my article, it is a bitter truth that the presentation of someone as a Truth Hound is for the majority of people sufficient evidence of the veracity of any statement uttered by him or her. For many people these “truths” become facts, and thus history is unjustly rewritten.
I contacted Markar Melkonian, Monte Melkonian’s brother, the co-author of My Brother’s Road, a biography of Monte Melkonian, to get his commentary regarding Ted Bogosian’s latest interview. He had this to say: “By far the most scurrilous of Bogosian’s claims is his contention that Monte masterminded attacks such as Orly. Not only was Monte not involved in this attack in any way, but as you [Ara Manoogian - A.M.] quite correctly noted, Orly and similar attacks drove Monte into desperate plans to kill Hagopian [Hagop Hagopian, founder of ASALA - A.M.] and any of his henchmen who got in the way, in order to stop such operations. With each outrage Monte became more desperate, until he resolved to take steps against Hagopian, with the full expectation that he would be killed in the process. Monte abhorred Orly, the Istanbul bazaar attack and the Ankara Airport attack, both because they took innocent lives, and because he believed such attacks harmed the cause to which he had pledged his life.”
As Ted Bogosian’s silence grew more deafening, and I received no confirmation that he had, in fact, received my emails, I implemented a tactic I was certain would repudiate an old Italian proverb: “Silence was never written down.” It was, in fact, on April 20, 2010. The tactic was to register tedbogosian.com and tedbogosian.blogspot.com, then upload my article debunking Ted Bogosian’s untruths about Monte Melkonian. Immediately after that I sent an email to the address I still believed belonged to Ted Bogosian, notifying him of the registration of tedbogosian.com for exposing his lies about Monte Melkonian. Silence was finally and immediately written down, as mentioned above, on April 20, 2010, as frugal as it was. Ted Bogosian wrote: “I will respond tomorrow, Ara.”
The next day I received an email from Jeffrey K. Techentin of Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C. engaged to represent Ted Bogosian with respect to my registration and use of www.tedbogosian.com and www.tedbogosian.blogspot.com. The content of his email revealed utilization of a more traditional tactic: when you can’t answer the core question, you have to cloud the issue. To this effect Mr. Techentin had this to say: “Mr. Bogosian has forwarded me the communications received from you. Please refer any further communications directly to me. Additionally, please note that Mr. Bogosian takes your threats very seriously, and objects to your appropriation of his name for your own purposes.” The latter of the concerns is understandable and expected, however, I was baffled by the respectable Truth Hound’s perception of my pursuit of truth as a threat. I honestly expected his cooperation in finding the truth wherever it leads. I must have been misled by Mr. Bogosian’s bold statement in the same interview in question: “Every single truth that gets revealed leads to another and other and other, and we may never arrive at truth. But we’re obligated to try. That’s my view.”
Having had them serve their purpose – making Ted Bogosian speak out – I parked the domains. When it became clear that Bogosian was unwilling to address the issue as seriously as he had taken the non-existent threats his attorney had referred to, I decided to issue a press release uncovering Ted Bogosian’s untruths on April 22, 2010. As I had hoped, many media outlets responded to the cause by publishing it. I should also note that I received scores of emails encouraging my efforts. I’ll take advantage of this platform and say a big “thank you.”
Nonetheless, one thing that the launch of the press release revealed for me was the justification of my apprehension that there will never be a shortage of people falling short of transcending stereotypical judgment, such as this: if you are a terrorist, then you kill innocent people, sell drugs and arms. How many people will question this? With this stereotype, one will perhaps be right nine times out of ten. However, Monte Melkonian, an exceptionally gifted person who preferred standing up and dying for the rights of his nation at any cost over a brilliant academic career awaiting him at one of the most prestigious European universities, deserves to be more than just a negligible statistical error differing from the expected value. This is my chief concern that has been fueling my active stance on inhibiting public dissemination of Ted Bogosian’s inaccuracies purported to be facts.
Later that day, Ted Bogosian, as confirmed by Radio Open Source host Christopher Lydon, his friend of 35 years, posted a comment under the interview on Huffington Post: “I am pleased that my conversation with Christopher Lydon has inspired such informed comments. […] Finally, I pledge to correct any inadvertent errors and omissions I may have made at Brown, as always. That is a Truth Hound’s obligation. Thanks to everyone for listening.”
Mr. Bogosian fulfilled his promise the next day by posting “corrections and amplifications” in the form of a comment at the Radio Open Source and, with some minor difference, at Huffington Post, which reads as follows:
More in the next post...Leave a comment:
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Re: Monte Melkonian
Ted Bogosian should be denied access to Armenia, idiot.Leave a comment:
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Re: Monte Melkonian
Ted Bogosian (whoever the hell he is) needs to find a new hobby, get a job, a life, etc.Originally posted by ninetoyadome View PostTed Bogosian And His Untruths About Monte Melkonian
By Ara Manoogian
hetq online
17.04.2010
17 years following his martyrdom in Artsakh, Armenian national hero
Monte Melkonian is once again a victim of defamation. I came across a
very interesting interview on Radio Open Source with an Armenian
decorated filmmaker and documentarian Ted Bogosian. The subject of the
interview was Ted's vocation - seeking the truth and telling it. Open
Source host Christopher Lydon introduced Ted Bogosian as a truth hound
and put the 'what is truth' question to him (see:
http://www.radioopensource.org/ted-b...a-truth-hound/).
What I heard in response less than halfway through the interview led
me to think that Ted may have misheard Christopher, thinking he had
been asked 'what is a lie' or, for that matter, how to present a lie
as truth.
As someone committed to truth seeking, I was at first thrilled to
learn about an alternative experience from a prominent Armenian until
I heard the following statements made by him:
"In Armenian Journey there is a very important sequence which didn't
make the cut. And that is that I started to pursue an interview with
a young man of my age and background named Monte Melkonian. And Monte
was born in about the same year, in the central valley of
California. And while I was at Duke, he was at Berkley, and when I
went to graduate school, he went to graduate school in Beirut. And he
was pursuing the truth about the Genocide in his own way and he became
radicalized and he went underground and started selling arms and
started selling drugs and started an Armenian terrorist movement. And
so while I was making Armenian Journey, he was in jail in France, for
having masterminded several bombings in Europe, at Orly Airport and at
Turkish embassies and other businesses, where many innocent people
were killed. And so, I went to see Monte in prison, and it was quite a
moment, because he thought that I was there to kill him since he
didn't know who I was and wasn't expecting a visitor that day. But I
came to start corresponding with him and came to understand his
manifesto, and I realized that what he was doing was similar to what I
was doing except in a different theater. And so, my battle was against
the media to try to tell the story one way, and his battle was more
traditional. So, that didn't make the cut because I wouldn't have been
able to get the film on television had I presented that manifesto. But
I mention it because I want to say that I think this sort of thing is
in the blood not only of Armenians but of people who want to tell the
truth and, that is, they're willing to go there no matter where it
leads." (The audio fragment is at 09:16-11:36).
Having devoted over a decade of my life researching Monte Melkonian's
brief and thorny path, it was especially saddening for me to hear such
irresponsible and defaming statements coming out of a fellow truth
seeker's mouth. These statements manifest shoddiness of research,
sweeping generalizations and a self-indulgent distortion of recent
Armenian history. I would like to see one single piece of evidence
that supports Mr. Ted Bogosian's claim that Monte Melkonian was a drug
dealer, arms dealer and a founder of a terrorist movement, who
masterminded the Orly operation. These are the three major things
against which Melkonian had been struggling with all his essence,
endangering his life in the process. It was the Orly operation that
catalyzed the split of Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of
Armenia (ASALA). To be more specific, below I have singled out each of
Ted Bogosian's inaccurate claims. Let's start from the most innocent
inaccuracies.
Ted Bogosian's claim #1: `And Monte was born in about the same year.'
Ted Bogosian was born in 1951, whereas Monte Melkonian was born in
1957.
Ted Bogosian's claim #2: `...and when I went to graduate school, he
[Monte Melkonian] went to graduate school in Beirut.'
Monte Melkonian was admitted to a graduate school at Oxford, but chose
to give up his academic career in favor of a trip to Beirut at the
onset of the second phase of the civil war and joined the defense of
Bourj Hammoud, the Armenian quarter of the city.
Ted Bogosian's claim #3: `...and [Monte Melkonian] started selling
arms and started selling drugs...'
All the accounts of people who knew him, whether interviewed by me or
other researchers, including those who spoke up at their own
initiative, indicate that Monte was adamantly opposed to drugs, be it
for use or for sale. Throughout my research, I haven't come across any
evidence of Monte being involved in arms or drug dealing. According to
one of Monte's brothers-in-arms, once Monte, already a Commander of
Martuni Defense Region, refused Samvel Babayan, Commander of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army, to promote an officer only because he
smoked marijuana. He had even banned his soldiers from using alcohol,
which was common practice in other detachments. More importantly,
Monte earned himself highly influential enemies after burning
lucrative cannabis fields in a noble attempt to shut down the local
drug trade. This deed was followed by a few attempts on his life. One
might assume that Monte could use the proceeds from supposed drug
sales to feed and equip the poorly armed fighters under his
command. All evidence indicates that he had ignored any such
compromise.
Ted Bogosian's claim #4: `...he [Monte Melkonian] started a terrorist
movement.'
This is an outright false statement. ASALA, to which Ted Bogosian
refers, was founded in 1975 in Beirut, Lebanon during the first phase
of the Lebanese Civil War by Harutiun Takoshian, alias Hagop
Hagopian. This was 3 years before Monte arrived in Lebanon for the
first time. Monte was recruited by ASALA in 1980 after serving in an
Armenian militia group in the Beirut suburb of Bourj Hammoud helping
defend the Armenian population during the civil war. Furthermore,
based on the accounts of both supporters and opponents of ASALA, Monte
played a pivotal role in the violent split of the organization in 1983
into those who supported the despotic leader Hagop Hagopian and those
who disapproved his methods of struggle exactly because it took
innocent lives, as well as distracted the attention from the cause the
attacks were supposed to raise awareness of.
Ted Bogosian's claim #5: `...he [Monte Melkonian] was in jail in
France, for having masterminded several bombings in Europe, at Orly
Airport and at Turkish embassies and other businesses, where many
innocent people were killed.'
A sweeping generalization. Monte Melkonian was arrested for possession
of a falsified passport and an illegal handgun in Paris on November
28, 1985. He was sentenced to six years but served only three and a
half. The Orly airport attack, which took place on July 15, 1983, and
did kill and wound many innocent people, was masterminded by his
already archenemy Hagop Hagopian and carried out by the latter's
supporters in Paris. The only people tried for the Orly airport attack
were Varadjian Garbidjian (also spelled as Varoujan Garabedian life
sentence, released 17 years later), Soner Nayir (15 years), Ohannes
Semerci (10 years). Parallel to the preparation of the Orly operation,
inner turmoil was in progress within ASALA due to the widening gap
between the members of the organization over the despotic leadership
of Hagopian, the methods of struggle and, specifically, the
implementation of the Orly attack. Monte was in the opposition
wing. But despite his efforts to cancel the Orly operation, it was
implemented, accelerating the final split of ASALA.
Who knows, the Karabagh war could have been a lost cause, had Monte
Melkonian been the mastermind of the Orly airport attack and therefore
gotten a life sentence? Melkonian was arrested twice. In his court
documents there was neither evidence, nor allegations supporting
Mr. Bogosian's announcement regarding his participation in the attack
in any form, as well as arms and/or drug dealing. It would have been
convenient for the French authorities and to Monte's enemies to find
such evidence, but there was none. To support my claim, I suggest that
interested individuals read The Right to Struggle, My Brother's Road,
Reality, A Self Criticism and a dozen other books.
Ted Bogosian's claim #6: `I went to see Monte in prison, and it was
quite a moment, because he thought that I was there to kill him...'
Okay, let me try to get this straight. Monte thought that Mr. Bogosian
came to the prison to kill him? So, Mr. Bogosian is saying that Monte
thought an Armenian-American filmmaker was going to walk into a high
security prison, formerly a concentration camp, armed guards watching
his every move, and kill him? What about checking for weapons before
entering the highly guarded visiting room? Ted Bogosian makes it sound
like Monte was in a health spa in the South of France.
I provided my arguments as accurately as I could and am willing to
embrace supporting evidence that proves Mr. Bogosian's
claims. Otherwise, as a friend of mine put it, Mr. Bogosian's
interview is more like "Ted talking about Ted - not the truth." I
welcome facts, as they will enrich our knowledge about who Monte
really was. With that said, I invite Ted Bogosian to set the record
straight by exchanging his recollections with evidence and
facts. Otherwise a public apology from Ted Bogosian is in order.
Ara Manoogian is a human rights activist representing the Shahan
Natalie Family Foundation in Artsakh and Armenia, as well as a member
of the Washington-based Policy Forum Armenia (PFA)
http://groong.usc.edu/news/msg314545.htmlLeave a comment:
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Re: Monte Melkonian
Ted Bogosian And His Untruths About Monte Melkonian
By Ara Manoogian
hetq online
17.04.2010
17 years following his martyrdom in Artsakh, Armenian national hero
Monte Melkonian is once again a victim of defamation. I came across a
very interesting interview on Radio Open Source with an Armenian
decorated filmmaker and documentarian Ted Bogosian. The subject of the
interview was Ted's vocation - seeking the truth and telling it. Open
Source host Christopher Lydon introduced Ted Bogosian as a truth hound
and put the 'what is truth' question to him (see:
http://www.radioopensource.org/ted-b...a-truth-hound/).
What I heard in response less than halfway through the interview led
me to think that Ted may have misheard Christopher, thinking he had
been asked 'what is a lie' or, for that matter, how to present a lie
as truth.
As someone committed to truth seeking, I was at first thrilled to
learn about an alternative experience from a prominent Armenian until
I heard the following statements made by him:
"In Armenian Journey there is a very important sequence which didn't
make the cut. And that is that I started to pursue an interview with
a young man of my age and background named Monte Melkonian. And Monte
was born in about the same year, in the central valley of
California. And while I was at Duke, he was at Berkley, and when I
went to graduate school, he went to graduate school in Beirut. And he
was pursuing the truth about the Genocide in his own way and he became
radicalized and he went underground and started selling arms and
started selling drugs and started an Armenian terrorist movement. And
so while I was making Armenian Journey, he was in jail in France, for
having masterminded several bombings in Europe, at Orly Airport and at
Turkish embassies and other businesses, where many innocent people
were killed. And so, I went to see Monte in prison, and it was quite a
moment, because he thought that I was there to kill him since he
didn't know who I was and wasn't expecting a visitor that day. But I
came to start corresponding with him and came to understand his
manifesto, and I realized that what he was doing was similar to what I
was doing except in a different theater. And so, my battle was against
the media to try to tell the story one way, and his battle was more
traditional. So, that didn't make the cut because I wouldn't have been
able to get the film on television had I presented that manifesto. But
I mention it because I want to say that I think this sort of thing is
in the blood not only of Armenians but of people who want to tell the
truth and, that is, they're willing to go there no matter where it
leads." (The audio fragment is at 09:16-11:36).
Having devoted over a decade of my life researching Monte Melkonian's
brief and thorny path, it was especially saddening for me to hear such
irresponsible and defaming statements coming out of a fellow truth
seeker's mouth. These statements manifest shoddiness of research,
sweeping generalizations and a self-indulgent distortion of recent
Armenian history. I would like to see one single piece of evidence
that supports Mr. Ted Bogosian's claim that Monte Melkonian was a drug
dealer, arms dealer and a founder of a terrorist movement, who
masterminded the Orly operation. These are the three major things
against which Melkonian had been struggling with all his essence,
endangering his life in the process. It was the Orly operation that
catalyzed the split of Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of
Armenia (ASALA). To be more specific, below I have singled out each of
Ted Bogosian's inaccurate claims. Let's start from the most innocent
inaccuracies.
Ted Bogosian's claim #1: `And Monte was born in about the same year.'
Ted Bogosian was born in 1951, whereas Monte Melkonian was born in
1957.
Ted Bogosian's claim #2: `...and when I went to graduate school, he
[Monte Melkonian] went to graduate school in Beirut.'
Monte Melkonian was admitted to a graduate school at Oxford, but chose
to give up his academic career in favor of a trip to Beirut at the
onset of the second phase of the civil war and joined the defense of
Bourj Hammoud, the Armenian quarter of the city.
Ted Bogosian's claim #3: `...and [Monte Melkonian] started selling
arms and started selling drugs...'
All the accounts of people who knew him, whether interviewed by me or
other researchers, including those who spoke up at their own
initiative, indicate that Monte was adamantly opposed to drugs, be it
for use or for sale. Throughout my research, I haven't come across any
evidence of Monte being involved in arms or drug dealing. According to
one of Monte's brothers-in-arms, once Monte, already a Commander of
Martuni Defense Region, refused Samvel Babayan, Commander of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army, to promote an officer only because he
smoked marijuana. He had even banned his soldiers from using alcohol,
which was common practice in other detachments. More importantly,
Monte earned himself highly influential enemies after burning
lucrative cannabis fields in a noble attempt to shut down the local
drug trade. This deed was followed by a few attempts on his life. One
might assume that Monte could use the proceeds from supposed drug
sales to feed and equip the poorly armed fighters under his
command. All evidence indicates that he had ignored any such
compromise.
Ted Bogosian's claim #4: `...he [Monte Melkonian] started a terrorist
movement.'
This is an outright false statement. ASALA, to which Ted Bogosian
refers, was founded in 1975 in Beirut, Lebanon during the first phase
of the Lebanese Civil War by Harutiun Takoshian, alias Hagop
Hagopian. This was 3 years before Monte arrived in Lebanon for the
first time. Monte was recruited by ASALA in 1980 after serving in an
Armenian militia group in the Beirut suburb of Bourj Hammoud helping
defend the Armenian population during the civil war. Furthermore,
based on the accounts of both supporters and opponents of ASALA, Monte
played a pivotal role in the violent split of the organization in 1983
into those who supported the despotic leader Hagop Hagopian and those
who disapproved his methods of struggle exactly because it took
innocent lives, as well as distracted the attention from the cause the
attacks were supposed to raise awareness of.
Ted Bogosian's claim #5: `...he [Monte Melkonian] was in jail in
France, for having masterminded several bombings in Europe, at Orly
Airport and at Turkish embassies and other businesses, where many
innocent people were killed.'
A sweeping generalization. Monte Melkonian was arrested for possession
of a falsified passport and an illegal handgun in Paris on November
28, 1985. He was sentenced to six years but served only three and a
half. The Orly airport attack, which took place on July 15, 1983, and
did kill and wound many innocent people, was masterminded by his
already archenemy Hagop Hagopian and carried out by the latter's
supporters in Paris. The only people tried for the Orly airport attack
were Varadjian Garbidjian (also spelled as Varoujan Garabedian life
sentence, released 17 years later), Soner Nayir (15 years), Ohannes
Semerci (10 years). Parallel to the preparation of the Orly operation,
inner turmoil was in progress within ASALA due to the widening gap
between the members of the organization over the despotic leadership
of Hagopian, the methods of struggle and, specifically, the
implementation of the Orly attack. Monte was in the opposition
wing. But despite his efforts to cancel the Orly operation, it was
implemented, accelerating the final split of ASALA.
Who knows, the Karabagh war could have been a lost cause, had Monte
Melkonian been the mastermind of the Orly airport attack and therefore
gotten a life sentence? Melkonian was arrested twice. In his court
documents there was neither evidence, nor allegations supporting
Mr. Bogosian's announcement regarding his participation in the attack
in any form, as well as arms and/or drug dealing. It would have been
convenient for the French authorities and to Monte's enemies to find
such evidence, but there was none. To support my claim, I suggest that
interested individuals read The Right to Struggle, My Brother's Road,
Reality, A Self Criticism and a dozen other books.
Ted Bogosian's claim #6: `I went to see Monte in prison, and it was
quite a moment, because he thought that I was there to kill him...'
Okay, let me try to get this straight. Monte thought that Mr. Bogosian
came to the prison to kill him? So, Mr. Bogosian is saying that Monte
thought an Armenian-American filmmaker was going to walk into a high
security prison, formerly a concentration camp, armed guards watching
his every move, and kill him? What about checking for weapons before
entering the highly guarded visiting room? Ted Bogosian makes it sound
like Monte was in a health spa in the South of France.
I provided my arguments as accurately as I could and am willing to
embrace supporting evidence that proves Mr. Bogosian's
claims. Otherwise, as a friend of mine put it, Mr. Bogosian's
interview is more like "Ted talking about Ted - not the truth." I
welcome facts, as they will enrich our knowledge about who Monte
really was. With that said, I invite Ted Bogosian to set the record
straight by exchanging his recollections with evidence and
facts. Otherwise a public apology from Ted Bogosian is in order.
Ara Manoogian is a human rights activist representing the Shahan
Natalie Family Foundation in Artsakh and Armenia, as well as a member
of the Washington-based Policy Forum Armenia (PFA)
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Re: Monte Melkonian
"If we lose Artsakh, we turn the last page of our people's history".
"Եթէ մենք կորսնցնենք Արցախը, մենք կը դարձնենք մեր ժողովուրդի պատմութեան վերջին էջը:"Leave a comment:
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