May 1905, using a bomb he carried out the assassination of the governor of Baku, Prince Mikhail Nakashidze, whom the ARF blamed for inciting Tatar attacks against Armenians in Baku. During the Armenian–Tatar clashes of 1905–1907, Dro participated in the organization of Armenian defense militias in the regions of Kotayk, Nakhijevan, and Zangezur. In 1907, Dro assassinated Tsarist general Maksud Alikhanov in Alexandropol. Prior to the Russian Revolution, Dro had killed more than one Russian official. 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 was decorated by the Tsar. In November 1914, he commanded the second battalion of the Armenian volunteers. The second battalion of the Armenian volunteers engaged in battle for the first time near Bayazid during the Bergmann Offensive. 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 battalion participated in eleven battles near 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 occupation of Turkish Armenia of the Ararat region. He was the commander of the Armenian forces in the Battle of Bash Abaran. The Armenian victories at Bash Abaran, Karakilisa, and Sardarabad stopped the advance of the Ottoman Army and are credited with preventing the destruction of the Armenian nation and allowing the creation of the First Republic of Armenia. First Republic of Armenia Dro was one of the chief military commanders of the First Republic of Armenia. He commanded Armenian forces during the brief Armeno-Georgian War in December 1918 over the disputed Borchaly (Lori) and Akhalkalaki uezds ("counties"). Armenian–Azerbaijani War During much of 1919, Dro and his army fought Ottoman-backed insurrections by Muslims against the First Republic of Armenia, defending the area south of Yerevan in what is now Ararat Province of Armenia. In December 1919, Dro went to Goris with a force of 600 soldiers with the intention of establishing Armenian control over the Syunik and Nagorno-Karabakh regions, which were fiercely disputed between Armenia and Azerbaijan.