By Seta Kabranian Melkonian

Many people believe that reality is a virtue that promotes honesty and justice. Individuals like Monte have always preferred painful truth to convenient lies, be it in personal, or national collective life. Unsubstantiated statements and slander only serve to worsen relationships and lead to mistrust.

Monte wrote the following on December 20,  1988:

Rumors are very bad things that we must fight against. They only confuse our people, and confusion always weakens us. Some people invent rumors on purpose because they think they can motivate and mobilize people, but this is both stupid and counterproductive. Also, people who think that way obviously don’t respect our people. They think our people are stupid and that the only way to make them do something is by fooling them. If we develop our critical thinking and scientific approach to problems, we will always be able to avoid giving credence to rumors. Then we must struggle to explain the truth to all our people and identify the source(s) of the rumors.

Rumors did not spare Monte as well, and big and small lies piled on top of each other, creating a character that does not correspond to reality. Some of these rumors and exaggerations should perhaps be considered a natural process of folklore. However, there are those who deliberately and maliciously distort the image of a man who was an open book. Adopting Monte’s approach in one of his writings, I will note here a short list of widespread truths and falsehoods attributed to Monte based on what I have read about him over the years.

1. He did not smoke.

True. Monte never smoked in his life. When I mentioned that I had tried cigarettes during my college years, his eyes wide opened.

“How could you do such a thing?”

“I'm a normal person, I try things,” I answered with a smile.

2. He did not drink.

False. Monte loved red wine, in the summer he drank ice cold beer with great pleasure, and in the winter cold he enjoyed Armenian cognac, especially Vasburagan. Monte never touched alcohol when he was in the war zone or in military uniform.

3. He gave people the clothes off his back.

True. More than once, Monte has given his clothes and even his shoes to someone who needed it. One night in May 1993, when he finally came to the bedroom, I noticed that his feet were covered with heat rash.

“What happened to your feet?” I asked.

“Oh nothing, it’s because I was wearing snow boots.”

“Why were you wearing snow boots in May? Where are your leather boots?”

“One of the guys needed shoes, and there were no shoed in his size at our storage. He wore my size. So, I gave him my shoes and had to wear my snow boots.”

4. He was a vengeful fighter.

False. I have come across this phrase in songs and other writings dedicated to Monte. The words Monte and revenge are incompatible, antonyms. Monte had no tolerance for blind hatred and bigotry.

5. He believed in equal rights.

True. Even on the battlefield, Monte was faithful to this principle and respected the rules of war. That is, one should fight only against armed forces. An unarmed and wounded enemy soldier ceases to be a fighter and has human rights to receive medical attention or to be a prisoner of war to be exchanged. It is a well-known and true story that, seeing the hesitation of his soldiers, Monte himself gave blood to save the life of a wounded Azerbaijani soldier.

6. He fought in Afghanistan.

False. While living in Iran, Monte had to leave the country to extend his visa. Using this opportunity, he traveled to Afghanistan, where he visited the world's largest Buddha statues in the Bamiyan Valley.

7. Monte fought for Palestine.

True. Monte showed solidarity to the Palestinian people’s liberation. Furthermore, he offered active support to the Palestinian struggle, especially in southern Lebanon.

This list of true & false can go on. I will stop here and end this piece with a quote from a letter Monte wrote on May 21, 1988.

One of the most important lessons I learned was to always remain clear-sighted and objective. Sometimes I was surrounded solely by bad people, and I saw bitter, ugly things. These things filled me with hatred, but I never fell victim to that feeling. I was always able to calmly observe our people’s whole reality, and the good aspects far outweigh the bad. Both my love for my people and my love for you (you don't know yet how important a role you played in my life. I will explain one day) were so great that they overcame the hatred of my immediate circle. Seta, I have learned to always pay close attention so that neither sadness nor joy blind me. Our feelings can have a very good impact on our lives and work, if we learn how to use them to strengthen ourselves, not let our feelings change our overall worldview or blind us to reality.

After this quote, I hope many people like me, time and again follow Monte’s example. In face of distrust and out of control hatred, perhaps Monte’s messages will help each of us to search for common grounds and choose the path to self-correcting and tolerance.