Biography

Al Sheikh Omar was born in 1905 in the village of Bedaruni, in the Goratu sub-district, Mergasor district, Erbil province. Before going to the Soviet Union, he was married; his wife's name was Surme Mirxan, and they had a son named Ahmed, who was born in 1934.

Struggle History

After Barzani and his companions began their journey, Barzani divided the Peshmerga into several groups and Al Sheikh Omar was the leader of one of the groups of Barzani's companions to the Soviet Union. After crossing the Aras River, he was one of the people who, on June 16, 1947, was tasked by General Mustafa Barzani along with Mirhaj Ahmed Akreyi, Lawko Masihi, and Shikho Omar Shanadari to go to the Soviet border guards so that they would receive them.

After arriving in the Soviet Union, on June 19, 1947, along with all his companions, they were placed in an open-air compound surrounded by barbed wire in the city of Nakhchivan in the Republic of Azerbaijan for forty days. They were guarded by a group of soldiers and were treated like prisoners of war in terms of food, clothing, and movement. Later, by the decision of the Soviet government, they were distributed among the regions of Aghdam, Lachin, Ayulakh, and Kalbajar in the Republic of Azerbaijan. On December 10, 1947, they were transferred to a military camp on the Caspian Sea in Baku, the capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and on the 23rd of the same month, they were given military uniforms and, under the supervision of the officers of the Republic of Azerbaijan, were given eight hours of military training daily. Because he was a Kurdish language teacher himself, he taught Kurdish language lessons to his companions for four hours daily.

After the poor treatment of the companions by Jafar Baghirov, it was decided to move the military camp on August 29, 1948, from the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Charchuk compound near Tashkent, the capital of the Republic of Uzbekistan, where they continued their military training.

In March 1949, along with his companions, they were distributed in groups and squads by train to the collective villages of the Soviet Union and worked on the collective farms (the lands that people rented back from the government and later gave the government's share back).

After much effort and sending several letters by General Barzani to Stalin, a letter finally reached Stalin in which Barzani described the hardships of his companions, and he immediately ordered the formation of a committee to investigate the situation of Barzani's companions. Eventually, the committee's decision was that they should all be gathered in the city of Vriviski, so he went to the city of Vriviski in the Soviet Union in November 1951. Al Sheikh Omar passed away in the Soviet Union in 1958.

Sources:

  1. Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Committee.

  2. Hamid Gardi, Summary of History, First Edition, (Erbil - Aras Printing and Publishing House - Ministry of Education Press - 2004), pp. 80, 95, 133.
  3. Sha'ban Ali Sha'ban, Some Political and Historical Information, Third Edition, (Erbil - Rojhalat Press - 2013), p. 37.
  4. Shawkat Sheikh Yazdin, The Golden Jubilee of the Peshmerga, First Edition, (Pirmam - Khabat Press - 1996), p. 14.
  5. Saleh Yusuf Sufi, Chronology of Kurdistan and the World, First Edition, Volume Two, (Duhok - Duhok Governorate Press - 2013), pp. 607, 856.
  6. Omar Farouqi, Sardar Dana: The Life and Struggles of the Late Mullah Mustafa Barzani, Second Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Education Press - 2002), p. 39.
  7. Abdulrahman Mullah Habib Abubakr, The Barzan Tribe Between 1931 - 1991, First Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Culture Press - 2001), pp. 121, 126-127.
  8. Abdullah Ghafoor, Geographical Dictionary of Erbil, (Erbil - Haji Hashim Press - 2015), p. 100.
  9. Karwan Mohammed Majid, The Barzanis from Mahabad to the Soviet Union, First Edition, (Sulaymaniyah - Paywand Press - 2011), pp. 84, 94-96.
  10. From the memoirs of the martyr commander Hasso Mirxan Zhazhoki, 62 Days with Barzani: The Journey of the Barzanis to the Soviet Union, First Edition (Erbil - Culture Press - 1997), p. 118.
  11. Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931 - 1958, (Duhok - Khabat Press - 1998), pp. 188, 194-197, 200-201, 205, 457.
  12. Najaf Quli Pesyan, From Bloody Mahabad to the Banks of the Aras, trans. Shawkat Sheikh Yazdin, First Edition, (Pirmam - Golden Jubilee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - 1996), p. 261.