Discover

'General Drastamat Kanayan' (, known as General 'Dro', Դրո, May 31, 1884 – March 8, 1956), was a politician, revolutionary, general and commander of the Armenian Legion of the Wehrmacht, the armed forces of Nazi Germany and part of Armenian national liberation movement.

Contents

Early life

Edict on Armenian church property

World War I

Democratic Republic of Armenia

Armenian-Azeri war

World War II

Death and burial

References

External links

Early life

Drastamat Kanayan was born in Iğdır, Surmalu, Russian Empire (present-day Turkey) in 1884. He was the son of Martiros Kanayan, the head of the Kanayan, or "Gago", family clan in Iğdır and Horom Kanayan, Drastamat's mother. At an early age, Martiros Kanayan enrolled his son to the parish school of Iğdır. Drastamat would skip school to hang out near the military barracks of Iğdır because of his interest in the military exercises held there.^[1] Noticing that he had no interest in books and learning, Martiros Kanayan pulled him out of the village school and enrolled him to the Yerevan Gymnasium school.
Drastamat was no better in the Yerevan Gymanisium school as the grades he achieved were barely enough for a promotion. Like all government schools in the provinces of Russia, there was a policy of Russification that limited education in the Armenian language to religion only. Inspired by stories of General Andranik's triumphs in the Ottoman Empire and the spread of nationalism by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Drastamat joined a secret youth movement in his school that opposed the Czar's government and promoted Armenian nationalism.^[2]

Edict on Armenian church property

On June 12 1903, the tsarist authorities passed an edict to bring all Armenian Church property under imperial control. This was faced by strong Armenian opposition because it perceived the czarist edict as a threat to the Armenian national existence. As a result, the Armenian leadership decided to actively defend Armenian churches by dispatching militiamen who acted as guards and holding mass demonstrations.^[3] This prompted Drastamat Kanayan to join the ranks of the Dashnaktsutiun in order to defend the churches from being confiscated through public demonstrations and guard duty.

World War I

Kanayan on horseback.

He served as detachment (military) 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^[4]. He was wounded during the command of Armenian volunteer units. Kanayan had already became a popular military leader after the victories over the Ottoman Empire at the Caucasus Campaign, and between Mar 1918 - Apr 1918 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.

Democratic Republic of Armenia

In 1918-1920, Kanayan became the Defence Minister of the short-lived Democratic Republic of Armenia and commanded Armenian troops in various successful wars. The last battles against the Ottoman Empire at the Caucasus Campaign essentially saved the Armenian Republic from total destruction. As a Defence Minister before the end of 1918, he took responsibility at the Armenian-Azeri war 1918 and Georgian-Armenian War 1918. Later in 1920, Turkish-Armenian War.
In 1920, after the incorporation of the Republic of Armenia into the Soviet Union, Drastamat Kanayan immigrated to Iran and later to Germany.

Armenian-Azeri war

In 1920, Drastamat Kanayan advanced to the vicinity of Shushi^[5]. On the night from March 21-March 22, 1920 when the Azeris were celebrating Novruz Bayram, the Armenians of Karabakh began to revolt and organized a surprise attack^[6]. During these clashes thousands of people from both the Armenian and Azeri sides were killed, with more than 7,000 houses burned and Shusha virtually cleansed of its Armenian population. On April, 1920, the bolshevik leadership of the Red Army informed from the Drastamat Kanayan to leave Karabagh. Karabagh-Zangezur was on the break of armed confrontation between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Drastamat Kanayan knew that if he did not compy with this demand the Red Army and the armed forces of Azerbaijan would have to act jointly^[7]. Dro had to withdraw because of the Sovietization of Azerbaijan and the assurances given by Sergo Ordzhonikidze’s messengers regarding a just solution to the Karabagh conflict. ^[5]. In this situation on May 26 the tenth congress of Armenian National Council of Karabagh, which took place in Taghavard village, proclaimed the change of position. The "Armenian National Council of Karabagh" was replaced with "Revolutionary Committee of Nagorno Karabagh". It was headed by S. Hambartsumian. On the same day Drastamat Kanayan along with his units was forced to leave Karabagh^[7].

World War II

The vision of an Armenian state in Anatolia was abandoned after the DRA for a meanwile. Until, it was raised again during the WWII.Yair Auron "The Banality of Denial: Israel and the Armenian Genocide" page 238 The declaration made by Alfred Rosenberg of the Armenians being an Indo-European people came simultaneously with the conscription of the Armenians in Turkey, the Soviet Union and Western Europe, to destroy the stability of Turkey and the Soviet Union. The expected prize was an Armenian state, in an expected new order in a new world created by the Nazi-Germany. Aid was given in propaganda and intelligence in which the Armenian organizations were active. Besides the veterans of Armenian militia, who escaped to USA at the end of Armenian genocide, came back to Europe to form the Armenian Legion. The representatives of the Armenian Dashnaks within Europe and USA decided to ally themselves with the German war effort and fight the Soviet Union with hopes of liberating the Armenian Republic from under Bolshevik rule. In 1941, the Armenian volunteers formed the "812th Armenian Battalion" within the German Wehrmacht and, as their numbers grew, they eventually became known as the "Armenian Legion." The Armenian Legion was put under the command of Drastamat Kanayan and was made up of a number of committed Armenian political activists and a larger number of Armenian POWs (prisoners of war) taken by the Germans in their sweep eastwards.
Early on, the total number of Armenian volunteers within the German Wehrmacht was approximately 8,000. These troops fought in Crimea, North Caucasus and served as police units for internal security duties in the occupied territories, and later on in Western Europe against the Allies.

Death and burial

With the end of the World War II, Drastamat Kanayan was arrested by American forces, but soon released. Kanayan settled within the large Armenian Diaspora of Lebanon. When traveling to the U.S. for medical treatment, he died in Boston on 8 March 1956.
With much pomp and ceremony, Kanayan's remains were taken to Armenia for final burial after Armenia gained independence from the Soviet Union. Drastamat Kanayan, along with his famous comrades in arms Garegin Njdeh and Andranik Toros Ozanian, is considered to be a great Armenian leader by Armenians worldwide.

Dro's Mausoleum in Aparan, Armenia.

References

★ ''Dimensions of Democracy and Authority in Caucasian Armenia, 1917-1920'', Richard G. Hovannisian, Russian Review, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Jan., 1974)
1. Iğdır at the time was an important military post where eight to ten thousand Russian troops were stationed including: infantry, Cossacks, cavalry and border guards. Most of the inhabitants of the village thrived by trading with the soldiers.
2. Tempest-Born DRO, , Simon, Vratsian, Armenian Prelacy, New York, translated by Tamar Der-Ohannesian, 2000,
3. Thou Shalt Kill: Revolutionary Terrorism in Russia, 1894-1917, , Anna, Geifman, , , ISBN 0-691-02549-5
4. HISTORY OF ARTSAKH Smbat Minasyan
5. Richard G. Hovannisian, "Historical Memory and Armenian-Azerbaijani Relations The Armenian Perspective" September 14, 2000
6. Richard G. Hovannisian. The Republic of Armenia, Vol. III: From London to Sèvres, February-August 1920
7. HISTORY OF ARTSAKH Government source
8. Richard G. Hovannisian, "Historical Memory and Armenian-Azerbaijani Relations The Armenian Perspective" September 14, 2000
9. HISTORY OF ARTSAKH Government source

External links

★ Gayane Kanayan, Wife of Armenian Hero General Dro, Honored by Defense Ministry