Biography

Salim Rashid Salam was born in 1918 in the village of Babseva, affiliated with the Barzan sub-district in the Mergasor district of Erbil province. Before going to the Soviet Union, he was married, and his wife's name was Parin Isa Goran. They had a son named Mustafa Salim (1944), who was disappeared by the Iraq government on July 31, 1983, during the Anfal operation against the Barzanis in the Qushtapa complex. 

Salim Rashid studied in the Soviet Union and received a bachelor's degree in the agriculture department. He married Zahra in the Soviet Union, and after returning to Iraq in 1959, he was appointed as an employee in the Sulaymaniyah Agriculture Department and was later transferred to the Barzan Agriculture Department.

 In 1980, he was transferred to the Qushtapa complex, and then he was re-appointed as an employee in the Erbil Agriculture Department. He was proficient in Kurdish, Arabic, and Russian languages. He passed away on October 28, 2006. 

Struggle History

Salim Rashid Salam joined the ranks of the Second Barzan Revolution in 1943. He participated in the capture of the police stations of Shingil, Bedaron, Kani Rash, and Bile. On October 2, 1943, he participated in the capture of the Shanadar police station, on October 12, 1943, in the capture of the Kherazok police station, on November 10, 1943, in the capture of the Mazne police station, and on August 8, 1945, in the capture of the Mergasor police station. On August 19, 1945, by order of the Iraqi military tribunal, all his movable and immovable property was seized. 

On October 11, 1945, after the collapse of the Second Barzan Revolution, he headed to Eastern Kurdistan. On March 31, 1946, he became a Peshmerga in the Barzani force affiliated with the army of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad. On April 29, 1946, he participated in the Battle of Qarawa in the Saqqez region of Eastern Kurdistan, where his hand was crippled in this battle and he became disabled.

 After the collapse of the Republic of Kurdistan, on March 19, 1947, he participated in the Battle of Naghadeh and Oshnavieh. He was among the Peshmerga who returned to the Shirwan and Mazuri region on April 19, 1947, through the Khwakurk road and the Barazgir plain, passing through 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 to stay or go to the Soviet Union. There, all his companions decided to continue and go to the Soviet Union. On May 23, 1947, he accompanied General Mustafa Barzani towards the Soviet Union and participated in the Battle of Qotur Valley 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 arriving in the Soviet Union, on June 19, 1947, he and all his companions were placed in an open-air complex surrounded by barbed wire in the city of Nakhchivan in the Republic of Azerbaijan for forty days. 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, 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, were given eight hours of military training daily. At the same time, for four hours a day, some of their companions who were literate taught them the Kurdish language.

After the bad treatment of the Barzani 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, 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 collective farms (the lands that people rented from the government and later gave the government's share back). 

After much effort and sending several letters by General Barzani to 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 the Barzani companions. Finally, the committee's decision was that they should all be gathered in the city of Vrevitsk, so he went to the city of Vrevitsk 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 the implementation of article (11) based on the amended Law No. 19 of 1959, he and his companions were covered by the 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 Grozia via the port of Basra in the south of the Republic of Iraq. 

 In the Year 1961, he participated in the Aylul Revolution and participated in the battles of Ma'id, Nehli, Mulla, Shindar, Sari Pirs, and Darit Qaraja between Bile and Rezan. In 1975, after the collapse of the Aylul Revolution , he was forcibly relocated by the Iraq government to southern Iraq and settled in Shafi'a in Diwaniyah province. 

Sources:

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  9. Hataw Magazine, Issue 154, Sixth Year, Erbil, Kurdistan Press, Friday, April 15, 1959.

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  13. Pirmam, November 1, 2018.