Biography

Hussein Mela Taha was born in 1925 in the village of Bedaron, affiliated with the Goreto sub-district in the Mergasor district of Erbil province. In the Year 1985, he headed to the Islamic Republic of Iran as a refugee, and passed away in Gali Rash while on his way to Iran.

Struggle Record

On May 23, 1947, he accompanied  General Mustafa Barzani  towards the Soviet Union and participated in the Battle of Gali Qotur and the Battle of 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 their arrival in the Soviet Union, on June 19, 1947, he and all his companions were placed in an open-air compound surrounded by barbed wire in the city of Nakhchivan in the Republic of Azerbaijan for forty days, 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, Ayolakh, 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, they 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 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 (Kolkhozes) (lands that people rented from the government and later gave the government's share back).

After much effort and sending several letters by General Barzanito Stalin, a letter finally reached Stalin in which Barzani described the hardships of his companions, and he immediately decided to form 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 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, according to both the third and seventh articles and paragraph (a) of the tenth article, and by working with article (11) based on the amended Law No. 19 of the Year 1959, he and his companions were granted a general amnesty.

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

In the Year 1964, he participated in the Aylul Revolution and took part in the battles. In the Year 1985, he headed to the Islamic Republic of Iran as a refugee, and passed away in Gali Rash while on his way to Iran.

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. Shawkat Sheikh Yazdin, Golden Jubilee of the Peshmerga, (Pirmam - Khabat Press - 1996).
  4. Salih Yusuf Sufi, Chronology of Kurdistan and the World, First Edition, Volume Two, (Duhok - Duhok Governorate Press - 2013).
  5. Abdulrahman Mela Habib Abubakr, Barzan Tribe between 1931-1991, First Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Culture Press - 2001).
  6. Karwan Muhammad Majid, The Barzanis from Mahabad to the Soviet Union, First Edition, (Sulaymaniyah - Paywand Press - 2011).
  7. From the memoir of the martyr commander Hasso Mirxan Zhazhoki, 62 Days with Barzani, The Journey of the Barzanis to the Soviet Union, First Edition (Erbil - Enlightenment Press - 1997).
  8. Laith Abdul-Muhsin Jawad Al-Zubaidi, The July 14, 1958 Revolution in Iraq, (Baghdad - Dar Al-Rashid for Publishing - 1979).
  9. Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931 - 1958, (Duhok - Khabat Press - 1998).
  10. 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).