Biography

Khurshid Yusuf Suleiman was born in 1927 in the village of Argosh, affiliated with the Sherwan Mazin sub-district in the Mergasor district of Erbil province. He studied in the Soviet Union and in 1958 received an institute diploma in the agriculture department of the Tashkent Institute in the Republic of Uzbekistan. He knew Kurdish, Turkish, and Russian. He passed away in 1989 in Sulaymaniyah and was buried in Seywan Hill.

Struggle Record

In 1943, he joined the ranks of the Second Barzan Revolution. For this reason, on August 19, 1945, by order of the military customary court, all his movable and immovable property was seized.

On October 11, 1945, after the defeat of the Second Barzan Revolution, he crossed into Eastern Kurdistan with Mustafa Barzani and his companions. After the establishment of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad, on March 31, 1946, he defended the Republic within the framework of the Barzan force and participated in the battles of the Saqqez front.

After the fall of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad and Barzani's return from Eastern Kurdistan to Southern Kurdistan, he participated in the battle of Naghadeh and the battle of Oshnavieh in Eastern Kurdistan. He was also among the Peshmerga who returned to the Sherwan and Mizuri region through the territory of Northern Kurdistan on April 19, 1947, via (Khwakurk and the Barazgir plain).

After their return, General Mustafa Barzani held a meeting with his companions in the village of Argosh on May 6, 1947, and gave them the choice of staying or heading towards the Soviet Union. There, all the companions decided to continue and head towards the Soviet Union. On May 23, 1947, he accompanied General Mustafa Barzani towards the Soviet Union and participated in the battle of the Qotur valley and the battle of the Maku bridge. After much hardship and fatigue, on June 18, 1947, he crossed into the Soviet Union at the Aras River, which is located on the border between Iran and the Soviet Union.

After arriving in the Soviet Union, on June 19, 1947, he and all his companions were placed in the city of Nakhchivan in the Republic of Azerbaijan for forty days in an open-air complex surrounded by barbed wire. They were guarded by a group of soldiers and were treated as 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 were trained for eight hours of military drill daily under the supervision of officers of the Republic of Azerbaijan. At the same time, they were taught Kurdish language lessons daily for four hours by some of their companions who were literate.

After the mistreatment 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 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 to the collective villages of the Soviet Union, where they worked on collective farms (Kolkhozes) (lands that people rented from the government and later gave a share to the government).

After much effort and sending several letters by General Mustafa Barzani to Stalin, a letter finally reached Stalin in which Barzani described the hardships of his companions. He immediately decided to form a committee to investigate the situation of Barzani's companions, and the committee's final decision was that they should all be gathered in the city of Vrevsky. Therefore, 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 by applying article (11) based on the amended Law No. 19 of 1959, he and his companions were granted a general amnesty.

In 1958, the Republic of Iraq was established under the presidency of Abd al-Karim Qasim. On April 16, 1959, he and his companions returned to Kurdistan via the port of Basra in the south of the Republic of Iraq on the ship Gruziya. 

 In the Year 1962, he participated in the Aylul Revolution. In 1963, he participated in the battle of Qopi Qaradagh, and in 1967, he participated in the battle of Dari Kali in Sulaymaniyah, where he was severely wounded. In 1974, he participated in the battle of Said Sadiq.

Sources:
  1. Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.
  2. Kurdistan Regional Government, Ministry of Planning, Administrative Units of the Governorates of the Kurdistan Region and the Number of Families and Population, Erbil, 2009.
  3. Hamid Gardi, Summary of History, First Edition, (Erbil - Aras Printing and Publishing House - Ministry of Education Press - 2004).
  4. Haydar Faruq al-Samarrai, Diya Jafar and his Political and Economic Role in Iraq, (London – Dar al-Hikma - 2016).
  5. Sha'ban Ali Sha'ban, Some Political and Historical Information, Third Edition, (Erbil - Rojhalat Press - 2013).
  6. Salih Yusuf Sufi, Chronology of Kurdistan and the World, First Edition, Volume Two, (Duhok - Duhok Governorate Press – 2013).
  7. Salih Yusuf Sufi, Chronology of Kurdistan and the World, First Edition, Volume Three, (Duhok - Duhok Governorate Press - 2013).
  8. Omar Faruqi, Sardar Dana: The Life and Struggles of the Late Mullah Mustafa Barzani, Second Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Education Press - 2002).
  9. Abdulrahman Mullah Habib Abu Bakr, The Barzan Tribe between 1931-1991, First Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Culture Press - 2001).
  10. Karwan Muhammad Majid, The Barzanis from Mahabad to the Soviets, First Edition, (Sulaymaniyah - Paywand Press - 2011).
  11. Laith Abdul-Muhsin Jawad al-Zubaidi, The Revolution of July 14, 1958 in Iraq, (Baghdad - Dar al-Rashid for Publishing - 1979).
  12. Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931-1958, (Duhok - Khabat Press - 1998).
  13. Najaf Qoli 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 AD).