Khoshewi Bekhshashi was born in 1933 in the village of Bekhshashi, affiliated with the Sherwan Mazin sub-district in the Mergasor district of Erbil province. He studied in the Soviet Union and received an institute diploma in the agriculture department. In 1959, he was appointed as an assistant engineer in the Mosul Agriculture Department. He knew both Kurdish and Russian languages.
Struggle RecordIn 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, 1946, he participated in the Battle of Qarawa in the Saqqez region, and on May 3, he participated in the Battle of Milqareni.
After the collapse of the Republic of Kurdistan, on March 3, 1947, he participated in the Battle of Nalos, on March 13-14 in the Battle of Gujar, and on March 19 in the Battle of Naghadeh and Oshnavieh. He was among the Peshmerga who returned to the Sherwan and Mizuri region through Northern Kurdistan via the Khwakurk and Barazgar plain route on April 19, 1947.
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 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, he and all his companions 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 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 Republic of Azerbaijan officers, were given eight hours of military training daily. At the same time, they were taught Kurdish language lessons daily for four hours 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 Chirchuk compound 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 among 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 decided to form 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 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 by applying 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 Abd al-Karim Qasim. On April 16, 1959, he and his companions returned to Kurdistan via the port of Basra in the south of the Republic of Iraq on the ship Gruzia.
In 1961, he participated in the Aylul Revolution and was a Head of Branch. He participated in the Rekani battles. On July 25, 1962, he was martyred in Merga and was buried there.
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-Samarra'i, Diya Ja'far and his Political and Economic Role in Iraq, (London - Dar al-Hikma - 2016).
- Sha'ban Ali Sha'ban, Some Political and Historical Information, Third Edition, (Erbil - Rojhalat Press - 2013).
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- From the memoirs of the martyr commander Haso Mirxan Zhazhoki, 62 Days with Barzani, The Barzanis' Journey to the Soviet Union, First Edition (Erbil - Culture Press - 1997).
- Laith Abd al-Muhsin Jawad al-Zubaidi, The July 14, 1958 Revolution in Iraq, (Baghdad - Dar al-Rashid for Publishing - 1979).
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- Najaf Qoli 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).