The Wrong Choice for a National Hero’s Museum
[November 05, 2007]
Monte Melkonian would have turned 50 On November 25th. The Government of Armenia has decided to mark the National Hero’s jubilee with a formal celebration. The commission established for the occasion and headed by the minister of defense has planned a number of activities, among which is the establishment of the Monte Melkonian Museum.
The commission intends to lay a wreath on Monte’s grave in the morning of November 25th and then to visit School # 11 in the Southwestern district of Yerevan to officially rename it after Monte Melkonian, to unveil a bust of Monte in the Alley of Glory leading to the Military Museum in Victory Park, and to hold a commemorative evening at the National Opera House. The establishment of the Monte Melkonian Museum is among these very appropriate measures, but no one knows who decided to establish the museum at School # 11.
It is one thing to have a corner illustrating the life and achievements of the person the school is named after (which, by the way, does not require a special decision by a state institution and can be done by the school administration itself) and another thing to pass a decision to create a museum dedicated to a national hero and to set it in an inaccessible outlying district. One can only congratulate the students, the administration and the staff of School # 11, along with the people who live in the neighborhood.
Alec Yenigomshian, Chairman, Monte Melkonian NGO
