Biography

Aziz Salih Aziz, was born in 1925 in the village of Lere belonging to the Shirwan Mazn sub-district in the Mergasor district of Erbil Governorate, in 1983 as a refugee headed to the Country of Iran, in 1991 returned to Kurdistan. In 1997 passed away in the village of Lere.

Struggle Record

Aziz Salih Aziz on 23 May 1947 accompanied General Mustafa Barzani towards the Soviet Union and participated in the Battle of Gali Qotur and the Battle of Maku Bridge and after much hardship and fatigue, on 18 June 1947 crossed the Aras River which is located on the border between Iran and the Soviet Union, towards the Soviet Union.

After their arrival in the Soviet Union, on 19 June 1947 along with all his companions in the city of Nakhchivan of the Republic of Azerbaijan for forty days were placed in an open-air complex surrounded by barbed wire and 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 10 December 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 were given military uniforms and under the supervision of the officers of the Republic of Azerbaijan were given eight hours of military training daily. At the same time, daily for four hours, they were taught lessons in learning the Kurdish language by some of their companions who were literate.

After the bad treatment of Jafar Baghirov towards the companions of Barzani, it was decided that the military camp be moved on 29 August 1948 from the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Charchuk complex near Tashkent, the capital of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and there they continued their military training. 

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

After much effort and sending several letters by General Barzani to Stalin, finally a letter reaches Stalin in which Barzani describes the hardships of his companions and he immediately decides to form a committee to investigate the Situation of the companions of Barzani and finally the committee's decision is that they all be gathered in the city of Vrevitsky, so the aforementioned went to the city of Vrevitsky in the Soviet Union in November 1951.

In 1958 the Republic government in Iraq was established under the presidency of Abdul Karim Qasim, so the aforementioned on 16 April 1959 along with his companions returned to Kurdistan by the ship Georgia via the port of Basra in the south of the Republic of Iraq.  

In 1973 participated in the Aylul Revolution and participated in the battles. 

Sources:

1. Abdulrahman Malla Habib Abubakr, The Barzan Tribe between 1931 - 1991, First Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Culture Press - 2001).

2. Abdullah Ghafur, Geographical Dictionary of Erbil, (Erbil - Kurdish Academy Publications - Haji Hashim Press - 2015).

3. Karwan Muhammad Majid, The Barzanis from Mahabad to the Soviet, First Edition, (Sulaymaniyah - Paywand Press - 2011).

4. Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931 - 1958, (Duhok - Khabat Press - 1998).

5. Najaf Quli Pesyan, From Bloody Mahabad to the Shores of Aras, trans. Shawkat Sheikh Yazdin, First Edition, (Pirmam - Golden Jubilee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - 1996).

6. Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.