Igdir at the time was an important military post where between 8,000 and 10,000 Russian troops were stationed (including infantry, Cossacks, cavalry and border guards).

[3] On 12 June 1903, the tsarist authorities passed an edict to bring all Armenian Church property under imperial control.

[4] This prompted Drastamat to join the ranks of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation in order to defend churches from confiscation through public demonstrations and guard duty.

[12] From that day to March of the following year, he remained in critical condition, but his battalion participated in eleven battles near Alashkert and Tutak, until Dro recovered and returned to resume the command.

[citation needed] 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 commanded Armenian forces during the brief Armeno-Georgian War in December 1918 over the disputed Borchaly (Lori) and Akhalkalaki uezds ("counties").

[15] 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.

[16] In a short amount of time, Dro, along with Garegin Nzhdeh and other commanders, drove out the Azerbaijani army and expelled most of the Turkic-speaking Muslims from Syunik, solidifying Armenian control over the region.

[16] On the night from 21–22 March 1920, when the Azerbaijanis were celebrating Novruz Bayram, the Armenians of Artsakh revolted and organized a surprise attack.

Dro knew that if he did not comply with this demand the Red Army and the armed forces of Azerbaijan would act jointly against Armenia and the Armenians of Artsakh.

[20] On 26 May 1920, the 10th Congress of the Armenian National Council of Karabakh, which took place in Taghavard village, proclaimed the establishment of Soviet power in Artsakh.

The Armenian National Council of Artsakh was replaced with the Revolutionary Committee of Nagorno-Artsakh, headed by Sargis Hambardzumyan.

Despite some initial success, Dro was forced to leave Goris to the Red Army and withdraw to Daralayaz (modern-day Vayots Dzor).

[2] Dro's second wife, Arpenik (whom he married in 1915), and their two children were sent into internal exile in Siberia and remained separated from him for the rest of his life.

[29] Dro settled with the large Armenian community in Beirut, where he lived for several years with the former prime minister of the First Republic of Armenia, Simon Vratsian.