Biography

Ahmed Ali Jam was born in 1895 in the village of Argosh, affiliated with the Shirwan Mazin sub-district of Mergasor district in Erbil Governorate. Before going to the Soviet Union, he married; his wife's name was Aisha Mullah Maqsud Saadi, and they had four sons and a daughter named Suheila, Rashid, Ababakr, Ali, and Majid. He knew three languages: Kurdish, Russian, and Turkish. He passed away at the age of 103 on April 11, 1998, and was buried in the Malabasak cemetery in Zewa.

Struggle History

In 1932, he joined the ranks of the First Barzan Revolution and participated in most of the battles. After the collapse of the First Barzan Revolution and the crossing of Sheikh Ahmed Barzani across the border of Northern Kurdistan on June 21, 1932, he also became a refugee in the Republic of Turkey, but after the Turks handed Sheikh Ahmed back to the Iraqi authorities in 1932, he returned to this side of the border.

After the outbreak of the Second Barzan Revolution in 1943, he joined the ranks of the revolution and participated in the battles; for this reason, on August 19, 1945, by order of the Military Martial Court, all his movable and immovable property was seized.

On October 11, 1945, after the collapse 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, as part of the Barzan force, he defended the Republic and participated in the battles of the Saqqez front.

After the fall of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad and the return of Barzani 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 Shirwan and Mazuri 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 in the village of Argosh on May 6, 1947, 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 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 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, were given eight hours of military training daily. At the same time, he taught Kurdish language lessons to his companions for four hours daily.

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 community 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 (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 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 the implementation of 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 Abdul Karim Qasim. Ahmed Ali Jam returned to Kurdistan on April 16, 1959, with his companions 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. After the collapse of the Aylul Revolution in 1975, he remained in the liberated areas of Kurdistan and turned his house into one of the headquarters of the Provisional Leadership (Qiyada Muwaqata) of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. He remained in that situation for (12) years until the Anfal campaign of 1988 began. At that time, he decided to choose the life of a refugee and settled in the Zewa community in Eastern Kurdistan. He passed away on April 11, 1998, and was buried in the Malabasak cemetery in Zewa.

Sources:
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