Born Dashi Zia Yuhanna son of Reverend Zia in 1952 in the village of Dargani in the Nahil region, part of the Amadiya district in Duhok Governorate. His father and grandfather participated in the first and second Barzan revolutions (1931-1932) and (1943-1945). His father, Reverend Zia, was a follower of Barzani and the founder of the Kurdistan Democratic Party organizations among the Christians of the Nahil region. At the outbreak of the Aylul Revolution in the year 1961, he was a senior cadre, making his home a Headquarters for the Peshmerga.
Dashi Zia joined the Kurdistan Students Union in 1969 and became a member. In 1971, he participated in the Kurdistan Students Union Congress in Sulaymaniyah. In 1974, he and Muhammad Hassan Rikani encouraged the residents to prepare for defense after the return of the army and the mercenaries (Jash) to their areas. He remained with his father in their village after the setback of the revolution in 1975.
Dashi Zia became involved with the Gulan Revolution in 1976. In 1982, he was appointed as the secret official for the Martyr Muhammad Hussein Organization, which was later renamed the Gor Organization in Amadiya, Duhok Governorate. At the same time, he was the official for the Civil Defense Force of the Nahil region. In May 1983, his father and wife were martyred, and his brother and sister were injured when the Ba'ath regime threw a hand grenade at his family.
In 1984, he was tasked with writing secret letters at the Party's First Branch in the city of Duhok, where Ramzi Shaaban was the official for the aforementioned branch. In 1988, after the Anfal campaigns and the infamous chemical attacks on the Badinan region, Dashi Zia fled to Iran and moved to Eastern Kurdistan. He participated in the Kurdistan popular uprising in 1991. In 1992, he was appointed as a member of the Amadiya Local Committee of the First Branch. In 1994, he was appointed Mayor of Sarsink, part of the Amadiya district. In 2001, he was appointed as a member of the Mankishk District Committee within the First Branch organizations. He became an active member of the Eighteenth Branch of the Party in the Amadiya district in 2005 upon the establishment of the aforementioned branch. He was appointed as an advisor in the First Branch in 2013, and he was a member of the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Congresses of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. In 2010, at the Thirteenth Congress of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, he received the Barzani Medal from President Masoud Barzani in recognition of the services he provided to the Kurds, Kurdistan, and the immortal Barzani path.
Source:Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board