Biography

Ahmed Taha Yunis was born in 1909 in the village of Isomara in the Mergasor district of Erbil Governorate, and on July 31, 1983, during the Anfal campaign of the Barzanis, he was disappeared by the government of Iraq while he was in the Qushtapa complex in Erbil Governorate.

Struggle Record

On May 23, 1947, he accompanied General Mustafa Barzani towards the Soviet Union and participated in the Battle of Qotur and the Battle of the Maku Bridge, and 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 complex surrounded by barbed wire, guarded by a group of soldiers, and 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, 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, they 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 lessons in the Kurdish language.

After Jafar Baghirov's poor treatment of his companions, 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 to the collective villages of the Soviet Union and worked on the collective farms (kolkhozes) (land that people rented from the government and later gave back the government's share).

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 ordered the formation of a committee to investigate the situation of Barzani's companions, and the committee's decision was that they should all be gathered in the city of Vriviski, so he went to the city of Vriviski 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 in accordance with 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, and on April 16, 1959, he returned to Kurdistan with his companions on the ship Gruzia via the port of Basra in southern Iraq.

On July 31, 1983, during the Anfal campaign of the Barzanis, he was disappeared by the government of Iraq in the Qushtapa complex in Erbil Governorate.

Sources:

  1. Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board

  2. Hamid Gardi, Summary of History, First Edition, (Erbil - Aras Printing and Publishing House - Ministry of Education Press - 2004).
  3. Rikar Mizuri, Women, Displacement, Anfal, and Genocide, First Edition, (Erbil - Minara Press - 2010).
  4. Rikar Mizuri, Tragedies of the Barzanis, First Edition, (Erbil - Haji Hashim Press - 2013).
  5. Omar Hamza Salih, Genocide and Crimes of the Ba'ath Regime Against the Barzanis 1975-1991 from the Perspective of Witnesses and Documents, First Edition, (Erbil - Rojhalat Press - 2017).
  6. Karwan Muhammad Majid, The Barzanis from Mahabad to the Soviets, First Edition, (Sulaymaniyah - Paywand Press - 2011).
  7. 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 Press - 1997).
  8. Laith Abdul-Muhsin Jawad Al-Zubaidi, The July 14, 1958 Revolution in Iraq, (Baghdad - Dar Al-Rashid for Publishing - 1979).
  9. Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931-1958, (Duhok - Khabat Press - 1998).
  10. 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).