Hussein Rashid Shamdin was born in 1929 in the village of Argosh, affiliated with the Shirwan Mazin sub-district in the Mergasor district of Erbil province. On June 21, 1932, he and his family were displaced to the Republic of Turkey, and later he was handed over by the Republic of Turkey to the Kingdom of Iraq and transferred to southern Iraq. He studied in the Soviet Union and received a technical industrial diploma. After returning from the Soviet Union, in 1959 he was employed as a technical supervisor at the spinning and weaving factory in Mosul, and he also worked for a while in Erbil. He knew Kurdish, Persian, and Russian. He passed away in 2004 in the city of Erbil and was buried in the Harir cemetery.
Struggle RecordIn 1943, he joined the ranks of the Second Barzan Revolution. On October 12, 1943, he participated in the capture of the Khirazok police station, and for this reason, 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 defeat of the Second Barzan Revolution, he and Mustafa Barzani and his companions 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 defeat of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad and Barzani's return from Eastern Kurdistan to Southern Kurdistan, he participated in the Saqqez front battle in Eastern Kurdistan. He was also among the Peshmerga who returned to the Shirwan and Mizuri 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 to stay or go 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 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, towards the Soviet Union.
After arriving in the Soviet Union, on June 19, 1947, he and all his companions were placed in the city of Nakhchivan in the Republic of Azerbaijan for forty days in an open-air complex 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 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, they were taught Kurdish language lessons by some of their companions who were literate.
After the mistreatment 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 complex near Tashkent, the capital of the Republic of Uzbekistan, where they continued their military training.
In March 1949, he and his companions were distributed in groups and squads by train to 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 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 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 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. 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 1961, he participated in the Aylul Revolution and was a Sergeant. He participated in the Pires battle and the year of the defense of Barzan battle. In 1975, after the defeat of the Aylul Revolution, he went to the Kingdom of Iran as a refugee. He participated in the Gulan Revolution and was in the refugee force, and in 1998 he returned to Kurdistan.
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 Faruq al-Samarrai, Zia Jafar and his Political and Economic Role in Iraq, (London - Dar al-Hikma - 2016).
- Salih Yusuf Sufi, Chronology of Kurdistan and the World, First Edition, Volume Two, (Duhok - Duhok Governorate Press - 2013).
- Abdulrahman Mullah Habib Abubakr, 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).
- From the memoirs of the martyr commander Hasso Mirxan Zhazhoki, 62 Days with Barzani, The Barzanis' journey to the Soviet Union, First Edition (Erbil - Enlightenment Press - 1997).
- Muhammad Salih Pindroyi (Jigarsuz), Cultural and Social Life of the Mizoori Bala Region, (Erbil - Rojhalat Press - 2020).
- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931-1958, (Duhok - Khabat Press - 1998).
- Najaf Quli 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).