My Brother's Road

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My Brother's Road: An American's Fateful Journey to Armenia

Author	Markar Melkonian
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	History
Publisher	I. B. Tauris
Publication date	2005
Pages	344 pp
ISBN	1-85043-635-5

My Brother's Road: An American's Fateful Journey to Armenia is a biography and memoir about the American-born Armenian, Monte Melkonian (1957–1993).

Monte was a third-generation Central Californian who as a young man abandoned a promising career as an archaeologist to become an Armenian militant. He was a witness to revolution in Iran, an Armenian militiaman in Beirut, a guerrilla fighter in Southern Lebanon, and finally, a commander of 4,000 fighters and thirty tanks in Karabagh. He died in battle on June 12, 1993, and has since been designated a national hero of Armenia.

The book was written by Monte Melkonian's elder brother Markar with the help of Monte's widow, Seta,^[1] and covers his journey from the classrooms of California to the rubble of Beirut, the Iranian revolution, ASALA, and the struggle for the mountains of Nagorno-Karabakh.^[2]

My Brother's Road gives you a powerful, detailed story of the nuance of Monte as a person, and his decisions. Described is the fascinating story of Monte's development from an American kid with no knowledge of his background to one with the strongest sense of duty towards it, as well as the many issues and contradictions that Monte fought with - both in the world, and in his own action & head.

Interesting moments in the book[]

The book talks about how Monte went from a militant in Lebanon who didn't know what he was doing and didn't care about civilians that were caught in the crossfire between himself and Turkish diplomats, to a much more mature person during his participation in the 90s Karabakh War who instructed the soldiers under his command to not harm any civilians, and any civilians who were killed by his forces were firmly punished by Monte Melkonian.

The book describes how until he was 12 years old he didn't know he was Armenian, he was very assimilated into American culture, however when his teacher at school asked him a question "Who are you?", he pondered about the question and began to familiarize himself about Armenian culture. Everyday, he would learn Armenian from a book for around 5 minutes whilst waiting for the school bus. However when he traveled to Lebanon and subsequently Armenia his Armenian language skills were still very poor.

In this book, Markar talks about how in Nagorno Karabakh, in the beginning soldiers didn't trust him since he came from America and they thought he may be a spy; they weren't sure what an American was doing fighting for the Armenian struggle, however as Monte proved himself an effective commander, he became well liked and civilians in Artsakh felt safe when he was around.

References[]

External links[]

• Melkonian, Markar; Seta Melkonian. My Brother's Road: An American's Fateful Journey to Armenia. I.B. Tauris, 2007.

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