Monte Melkonian (in Armenian: in TAO Մոնթէ Մելքոնեան, in RAO Մոնթե Մելքոնյան; sometimes simply referre to by just his first name Monte; November 25, 1957 – June 12, 1993) was a famed Armenian military commander in the Nagorno-Karabakh war. He is largely credited for major military victories against Azerbaijan from the late autumn of 1992 to his death in June 1993. Melkonian had no prior service record in any country's army before being placed in command of an estimated 4,000 men in the war. He had largely built his military experience beginning from the late 1970s and 1980s where he fought against the various splintering factions in the Lebanese Civil War, against Israeli troops in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and was a member of the Armenian guerrilla organization ASALA.