Biography

Cheto Babsivi was born in 1920 in the village of Babsiva, part of the Barzan district in the Mergasor district of Erbil province. In 1959, after returning from the Soviet Union, he was employed as an official in the agricultural administration. On July 31, 1983, during the Anfal process of the Barzanis, he and his son, Ahmed Cheto (1965-1983), were disappeared by the then-regime of Iraq in the Qushtapa complex in Erbil province.

Struggle Record

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

After arriving in the Soviet Union, on June 19, 1947, he and all his companions were placed in an open-air complex 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 moved 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 officers of the Republic of Azerbaijan, were given eight hours of military training daily. At the same time, for four hours a day, they were taught lessons in the Kurdish language by some of their companions who were literate.

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

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

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 for them all to be gathered in the city of Vrevsky, so he went to the city of Vrevsky in the Soviet Union in November 1951.

After the July 14, 1958 revolution in Iraq and the return of General Mustafa Barzani, on February 25, 1959, and according to both the third and seventh articles and paragraph (A) of the tenth article and the implementation of Article (11) based on the amended Law No. 19 of 1959, he and his companions were covered by a general amnesty.

In 1958, the Republic of Iraq was established under the presidency of Abdul Karim Qasim. On April 16, 1959, he and his companions returned to Kurdistan by the ship Grozia via the port of Basra in the south of the Republic of Iraq. 

 In the Year 1965, he participated in the Aylul Revolution, and on July 31, 1983, during the Anfal process of the Barzanis, he was disappeared by the then-regime of Iraq in the Qushtapa complex.

Sources:

  1. Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.

  2. Hamid Gardi, Summary of History, First Edition, (Erbil - Aras Printing and Publishing House - Ministry of Education Press - 2004).
  3. Rikari Mizuri, Women, Displacement, Anfal, and Genocide, First Edition, (Erbil - Minara Press - 2010).
  4. Sha'ban Ali Sha'ban, Some Political and Historical Information, Third Edition, (Erbil - Rojhalat Press - 2013).
  5. Shawkat Sheikh Yazdin, Golden Jubilee of the Peshmerga, (Pirmam - Khabat Press - 1996).
  6. Salih Yusuf Sufi, Chronology of Kurdistan and the World, First Edition, Volume Two, (Duhok - Duhok Governorate Press - 2013).
  7. Omar Hamza Salih, Genocide and Crimes of the Ba'ath Regime against the Barzanis 1975-1991 from the Perspective of Witnesses and Documents, First Edition, (Erbil - Rojhalat Press - 2017).
  8. Karwan Muhammad Majid, The Barzanis from Mahabad to the Soviet Union, First Edition, (Sulaymaniyah - Paywand Press - 2011).
  9. From the memoir of the martyr commander Haso Mirxan Zhazhoki, 62 Days with Barzani, The Journey of the Barzanis to the Soviet Union, First Edition (Erbil - Roshinbiri Press - 1997).
  10. Laith Abdul-Muhsin Jawad Al-Zubaidi, The 14 July 1958 Revolution in Iraq, (Baghdad - Dar Al-Rashid for Publishing - 1979).
  11. Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931-1958, (Duhok - Khabat Press - 1998).
  12.