At the Battle of Sardarabad in 1918, the 5th Regiment was a reserve guerrilla unit and a special cavalry regiment. His cousin, Daniel Bek-Pirumyan, also participated in the battle as a commander-in-chief. Armenian general Movses Silikyan ordered elements of the 5th Armenian Regiment under Bek-Pirumyan to check the advance of the Ottoman army.[1] An offensive was launched on May 22 and the Armenian forces were successful in halting the Ottomans in their tracks and forcing Yakub Shevki Pasha's forces into a general rout, retreating nearly 15-20 kilometers in a westerly direction. The Ottoman command, however, was able to recuperate from its losses and reorganized its forces near the mountain heights on the north-west bank of the Araks river. Repeated attempts to cross the river were met with fierce resistance by the 5th Armenian Regiment.[1] On May 24, several more skirmishes took place between the Armenian and Ottoman forces. The battle came to end on May 29, with a decisive Armenian victory[1]
After Sovietization of Armenia in December 1920, about 1,000 officers of the First Republic of Armenia were arrested by the Bolshevik authorities, and were forced to walk from Yerevan to Alaverdi by foot (about 160 kilometers). Some of them were killed on the road. In January 1921, many heroes of the Battle of Sardarabad were shot, including Daniel Bek-Pirumyan. Poghos Bek-Pirumyan committed suicide on 19 January 1921 after being tortured. These events soon led to the February Uprising.
Personal life
Bek-Pirumyan married his wife Catherine in 1892, and they had three children: Alexander (b. 1893), Tamara (b. 1897), and Michael (b. 1899).
^ abc(in Armenian) Harutunyan, Ashot H. «Սարդարապատի ճակատամարտ 1918» [The Battle of Sardarapat, 1918]. Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1984, vol. x, pp. 227-228.