Biography

Qasim Sa'di Abdi was born in 1928 in the village of Argosh, Shirwan Mazn sub-district, Mergasor district, Erbil province. In 1983, he was Anfalized by the Ba'ath regime in the forced Qushtapa camp.

Struggle History

On May 22, 1947, he accompanied General Mustafa Barzani towards the Soviet Union and participated in the Battle of Kotol (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, along with all his companions, they were placed in the city of Nakhchivan in the Republic of Azerbaijan for forty days in an open-air compound surrounded by barbed wire. 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 the officers of the Republic of Azerbaijan, they were given eight hours of military training daily. At the same time, they were taught Kurdish language lessons daily for four hours by some of their companions who were literate.

After the bad treatment of Ja'far Bagirov towards the companions of Barzani, 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 among the collective villages of the Soviet Union and worked on the Kolkhoz farms (lands that people rented from the government and later gave the government's share back). 

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, and he immediately ordered the formation of 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 Vrevitski, so Qasim Sa'di Abdi went to the city of Vrevitski in the Soviet Union in November 1951.

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

In 1961, he joined the Peshmerga forces of the Aylul Revolution and became a Peshmerga.

Sources:

1- Hamid Gawhari, Barzani Medal the Highest Award of Honor, Volume One, (Erbil- Haji Hashim Printing House- 2015).

2- Hamid Gardi, Summary of History, First Edition, (Erbil- Aras Printing and Publishing House- Ministry of Education Printing House- 2004).

3- Sha'ban Ali Sha'ban, Some Political and Historical Information, Third Edition, (Erbil- Rojhalat Printing House- 2013).

4- Omar Farouqi, Sardar Dana Life and Struggles of the Late Mullah Mustafa Barzani, Second Edition, (Erbil- Ministry of Education Printing House- 2002).

5- Abdulrahman Mullah Habib Abubakr, Barzan Tribe between 1931-1991, First Edition, (Erbil- Ministry of Culture Printing House- 2001).

6- Abdullah Ghafur, Geographical Dictionary of Erbil, (Erbil- Kurdish Academy Publications- Haji Hashim Printing House- 2015).

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

8- From the memoirs of the martyr commander Haso Mirxan Zhazhoki, 62 Days with Barzani, The Barzanis' Journey to the Soviet Union, First Edition, (Erbil- Enlightenment Printing House- 1997).

9- Laith Abdul-Muhsin Jawad Al-Zubaidi, The Revolution of July 14, 1958 in Iraq, (Baghdad- Dar Al-Rashid for Publishing- 1979).

10- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931-1958, (Duhok- Khabat Printing House- 1998). 

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

12- Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.