Iranian Revolution After graduating from U.C. Berkeley in the spring of 1978, Melkonian travelled to
Iran, where he taught English and participated in the movement to
overthrow the Shah. He helped organize a teachers' strike at his school in
Tehran, and was in the vicinity of
Jaleh Square when the Shah's troops opened fire on protesters, killing and injuring many. Later, he found his way to
Iranian Kurdistan, where
Kurdish partisans made a deep impression on him. Years later, in southern Lebanon, he occasionally wore the uniform of the Kurdish
peshmerga which he was given in Iranian Kurdistan.
Lebanese Civil War In the fall of 1978, Melkonian made his way to
Beirut, the capital of
Lebanon, in time to participate in the defense of the Armenian quarter against the right-wing
Phalange forces. While he was living in East Beirut, Melkonian worked underground with individual members of the
Social Democrat Hunchakian Party and the
Lebanese Communist Party. Although he never professed an allegiance to the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), he was a member of the Armenian militia that defended positions in and around
Bourj Hammoud that were under the command of ARF "group leaders". Melkonian was a permanent member of the militia's bases in Bourj Hammoud, Western Beirut, Antelias, Eastern Beirut, and other regions for almost two years, during which time he participated in several street battles against
Phalange forces. He also began working behind the lines in
Phalangist controlled territory, on behalf of the "Leftist and Arab"
Lebanese National Movement. By this time, he was speaking Armenian – a language he had not learned until adulthood (Armenian was the fourth or fifth language Melkonian learned to speak fluently, after Spanish, French, and Japanese. In addition, he spoke passable Arabic, Italian, and Turkish, as well as some
Persian and
Kurdish).
ASALA In the spring of 1980, Melkonian was inducted into the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (
ASALA) and secretly relocated to West Beirut. For the next three years he was an ASALA militant and contributor to the group's journal,
Hayastan. During this time, several Palestinian militant organizations provided their Armenian comrades with extensive military training. On 31 July 1980 in
Athens, Melkonian assassinated the Administrative Attaché of
Turkish Embassy in
Greece,
Galip Ozmen, considered by Melkonian to be a legitimate target for representing a regime that committed the
Armenian genocide,
occupied northern Cyprus,
massacred Kurds in Turkey, among other crimes. After his death, Özmen was also revealed to have been a Turkish intelligence (
MIT) spy. Melkonian also shot the passengers in the front and back seats who were obscured by darkly tinted window glass, believing them to be other diplomats. The passengers were later revealed to be Ozmen's wife Sevil, and his sixteen-year-old son, Kaan, who were wounded but survived, and his fourteen-year-old daughter, Neslihan, who later died of her wounds. Melkonian was reportedly unhappy to find out who the other passengers were, and later wrote that he would've spared them if he had a clearer view. Melkonian carried out armed operations in
Rome,
Athens and elsewhere, and he helped to plan and train commandos for the "
Van Operation" of September 24, 1981, in which four ASALA militants took over the Turkish
embassy in
Paris and held it for several days. In November 1981, French police arrested and imprisoned a young, suspected criminal carrying a Cypriot passport bearing the name "Dimitri Georgiu". Following the detonation of several bombs in Paris aimed at gaining his release, "Georgiu" was returned to
Lebanon where he revealed his identity as Monte Melkonian. In mid-July 1983, ASALA violently split into two factions, one opposed to the group's despotic leader, whose
nom de guerre was
Hagop Hagopian, and another supporting him. Although the lines of fissure had been deepening over the course of several years, the shooting of Hagopian's two closest aides at a military camp in Lebanon finally led to the open breach. This impetuous action was perpetrated by one individual who was not closely affiliated with Melkonian. As a result of this action, however, Hagopian took revenge by personally torturing and executing two of Melkonian's dearest comrades, Garlen Ananian and Aram Vartanian.
Imprisonment in France In the aftermath of this split, Melkonian spent over two years underground, first in Lebanon and later in
France. After testifying secretly for the defence in the trial of Armenian militant and accused bank robber Levon Minassian, he was arrested in Paris in November 1985 and sentenced to six years in prison for possession of falsified papers and carrying an illegal handgun. Melkonian spent over three years in
Fresnes and
Poissy prisons. He was released in early 1989 and sent from France to
South Yemen, where he was reunited with his girlfriend
Seta. Together they spent year and a half living underground in various countries of
eastern Europe in relative poverty, as one
Eastern Bloc regime after another disintegrated. ==Arrival in the Armenian SSR==