Rasho Karim was born in 1927 in the village of Mawata, affiliated with the Shirwan Mazin sub-district in the Mergasor district of Erbil province. He studied in the Soviet Union and in 1958 received an institute degree from the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Uzbekistan. It was in the Soviet Union that he married Tamara (Taji Khan). After returning from the Soviet Union, he was appointed as an employee in the Erbil Agriculture Department in 1959. He knew Kurdish, Turkish, and Russian. He passed away on October 1, 1976, in Mawata and was buried there.
Struggle RecordWith the outbreak of the Second Barzan Revolution in 1943, he joined the revolution. For this reason, on August 19, 1945, by order of the military tribunal, all his movable and immovable property was seized.
On October 11, 1945, after the defeat of the Second Barzan Revolution, along with Mustafa Barzani and his companions, he crossed into Eastern Kurdistan. 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.
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 Shno in Eastern Kurdistan. He was also among the Peshmerga who returned to the Shirwan and Muzuri region on April 19, 1947, through (Khwakurk and the Bazargir plain) via the territory of Northern Kurdistan.
After their return, General Mustafa Barzani held a meeting with his companions on May 6, 1947, in the village of Argosh and gave them the choice of staying or going to the Soviet Union. There, all the companions decided to continue and go to the Soviet Union. On May 23, 1947, he accompanied General Mustafa Barzani toward the Soviet Union and participated in the Battle of Gali Qotur and the Battle of the Maku Bridge. After much hardship and fatigue, on June 18, 1947, he crossed the Aras River, which lies 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 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 Republic of Azerbaijan officers, were given eight hours of military training daily. At the same time, for four hours daily, they were taught the Kurdish language by some of their companions who were literate.
After Jafar Baghirov's poor treatment of the companions, 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 in the kolkhoz fields (lands that people rented from the government and later gave the government's share back).
After much effort and the sending of 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 by working with 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 Gruzia via the port of Basra in the south of the Republic of Iraq.
He participated in the Aylul Revolution In 1961, he participated in the battles of Mount Pires and Mount Matin. From 1961 to 1974, he participated in most of the battles on the border of the Badinan and Qaladze regions. In 1963, in the town of Rawanduz, he was arrested by the Iraqi government for joining the revolution, was tortured in prison, and was released after 4 months.
Sources:- Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.
- Hamid Gardi, Summary of History, First Edition, (Erbil - Aras Printing and Publishing House - Ministry of Education Press - 2004).
- Haydar Farooq Al-Samarrai, Dhiya Jafar and his Political and Economic Role in Iraq, (London – Dar Al-Hikma - 2016).
- Sha'ban Ali Sha'ban, Some Political and Historical Information, Third Edition, (Erbil - Rojhalat Press - 2013).
- Shawkat Sheikh Yazdin, The Golden Jubilee of the Peshmerga, (Pirmam - Khabat Press - 1996).
- Omar Farouqi, Sardar Dana: The Life and Struggles of the Late Mullah Mustafa Barzani, Second Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Education Press - 2002).
- Abdulrahman Mullah Habib Abu Bakr, The Barzan Tribe between 1931-1991, First Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Culture Press - 2001).
- Karwan Muhammad Majid, The Barzanis from Mahabad to the Soviet, First Edition, (Sulaymaniyah - Paywand Press - 2011).
- Hataw Magazine, Issue 154, Sixth Year, Erbil, Kurdistan Press, Friday, April 15, 1959.
- From the memoir of the martyr commander Haso Mirxan Zhazhoki, 62 Days with Barzani: The Going of the Barzanis to the Soviet Union, First Edition (Erbil - Roshinbiri Press - 1997).
- Laith Abdul-Muhsin Jawad al-Zubaidi, The 14 July 1958 Revolution in Iraq, (Baghdad - Dar al-Rashid for Publishing - 1979).
- Muhammad Salih Pindroyi (Jagersoz), Cultural and Social Life of the Mizoori Bala Region, (Erbil - Rojhalat Printing House - 2020).
- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931-1958, (Duhok - Khabat Printing House - 1998).
- 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).