Biography

Khoshawi Mela Muhammad was born in 1915 in the village of Kani Lanj, affiliated with the Goratu sub-district in the Mergasor district of Erbil province. Before going to the Soviet Union, he was married and had a son named Saeed, who was born in 1935. In 1949, in the Soviet Union, Khoshawi Mela Muhammad married for the second time to Aviza Amir Asan; they had a son and two daughters named Jawahir, born in 1951, Khalil, born in 1956, and Zira, who was younger than her brother and sister and was born in 1958. Khoshawi's wife, Aviza, was of the Tatar people of the Crimean Peninsula.

After the collapse of the Aylul Revolution, in 1978, Khoshawi was relocated by the government of Iraq to the Harir complex. On July 31, 1983, during the Anfal operation against the Barzanis, his son Saeed and a grandson named Hali Saeed (1961-1983) were disappeared by the Iraqi government in the Harir complex. Khoshawi Mela Muhammad passed away on March 15, 2004, in the village of Kani Lanj and was buried there.

Struggle Record

In 1943, he joined the ranks of the Second Barzan Revolution and participated in the battles. On August 19, 1945, by order of the Iraqi military tribunal, all his movable and immovable property was seized. After the collapse of the Second Barzan Revolution, on October 11, 1945, he headed to Eastern Kurdistan. On March 31, 1946, he was a Peshmerga in the Barzan Force affiliated with the army of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad. On April 29 of the same year, he participated in the Battle of Qarawa in the Saqqez region.

After the collapse of the Republic of Kurdistan, on March 3, 1947, he participated in the Battle of Nalos, and on March 19, he participated in the battles of Naghadeh and Oshnavieh. He was among the Peshmerga who returned to the Shirwan and Mazuri region through the territory of Northern Kurdistan on April 19, 1947, via (Khwakurk and the Barazgir plain).

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 head towards the Soviet Union. There, all his companions decided to continue and head towards 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 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 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, Ayolakh, 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 officers of the Republic of Azerbaijan, were given eight hours of military training daily. At the same time, they were taught Kurdish language lessons for four hours daily by some of their companions who were literate.

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 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 (Kolkhozes) (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, finally a letter 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. Ultimately, the committee's decision was that they should all be gathered in the city of Vrevsky, so he went to the city of Vrevsky in the Soviet Union in November 1951.

After the 14 July 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 the eleventh article 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 Abd al-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. 

 In the Year 1962, after the outbreak of the Aylul Revolution, he participated in the revolution and took part in the battles of the Barzan region, Mount Pirs, and Mount Gorazi.

Sources:

  1. Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board

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  12. Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931-1958, (Duhok - Khabat Press - 1998).
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