Drastamat Kanayan - World War I

World War I

He served as detachment commander in the Russian Caucasus Army during World War I. He was one of the commanders of the Armenian volunteer units and decorated by the Tsar.

In November 1914, he had the second battalion of the Armenian volunteers. At the Bergmann Offensive, the second battalion of the Armenian volunteers engaged in battle for the first time, near Bayazid. In the course of a bloody combat which lasted twenty-four hours, Dro, commander of the battalion, was seriously wounded. From that day to March of the following year, he remained in critical condition, but his battilion led into eleven battles in the neighborhood of Alashkert, Toutakh, and Malashkert, until Dro recovered and returned to resume the command. Kanayan had already become a popular military leader after the victories over the Ottoman Empire at the Caucasus Campaign.

Between March 1918 and April 1918 he was appointed by the Armenian National Council military commissar to the Administration for Western Armenia of the Ararat region. He was the commander of Battle of Bash Abaran.

During the Armenian Genocide, Kanayan fought off Turkish aggression against Armenian civilians. "In history it happened to the Armenians in Turkey and Eastern Anatolia 2.5 million Armenians were killed by the Turks in the worst possible way imaginable. It is sickening to think that the human race is capable of such actions, but there is no denying the fact that the genocide of 1 million Armenians happened. The Armenian General Dro, was the hero of this Turkish genocide of Armenians, 1914-1920." - Arto Derounian (as 'John Roy Carlson'), Armenian Affairs magazine Winter issue, 1949–50, page 19, footnote. (Derounian's first name was "Avedis," and "Arthur" is the name he usually used; the author's "Under Cover" was a best seller in 1944.)