Biography

Mela Salih was born in 1927 in the village of Shanadar, affiliated with the Goratu sub-district in the Mergasor district of Erbil province, and passed away on October 14, 2013.

Struggle Record

In 1945, he joined the ranks of the Second Barzan Revolution. On August 19, 1945, by order of the Iraqi military tribunal, all his movable and immovable property was seized. On September 5, he participated in the capture of the Maydan Morik police station. On October 11, 1945, after the defeat of the Second Barzan Revolution, he headed to Eastern Kurdistan and settled in the village of Paso. 

On March 31, 1946, he became a Peshmerga in the Barzani force affiliated with the army of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad. After the defeat of the Republic of Kurdistan, he participated in the battles of Hevers and Heleji on March 25, 1947.

He was among the Peshmerga who returned to the Shirwani and Mizuri region through the Khwakurk and Barazgar plain route via the territory of Northern Kurdistan on April 19, 1947.

After their return, General Mustafa Barzani held a meeting with his companions on May 15, 1947, in the village of Argosh, giving them the choice to stay or head toward the Soviet Union. There, all his companions decided to continue and head toward the Soviet Union. On May 23, 1947, he accompanied General Mustafa Barzani toward 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, 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 as 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 officers of the Republic of Azerbaijan, 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 the Kurdish language.

After the poor treatment of the Barzani 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 by train in groups and squads across the collective villages of the Soviet Union, where they worked on collective farms (land 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. He immediately ordered the formation of a committee to investigate the situation of the Barzani companions, and the committee's final decision was that they should all be gathered in the city of Vrevsky. Therefore, 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 in accordance with 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 covered by a general amnesty. 

In 1958, the Republic of Iraq was established under the presidency of Abd al-Karim Qasim. He returned to Kurdistan with his companions on April 16, 1959, via the ship Grozia through the port of Basra in the south of the Republic of Iraq.  

 In 1959, he was in Baghdad with Mela Mustafa Barzani. He participated in the Aylul Revolution. In 1962, he participated in the capture of the Rayat police station. In 1963, he participated in the battles of Sare Akre. Until 1975, he was at the Barzani headquarters in the Ranya, Dilman, and Haji Omaran regions. In 1975, after the defeat of the Aylul Revolution, he headed to Iran as a refugee and settled in the city of Oshnavieh, and returned to Erbil due to the general amnesty. In 1985, he went to Iran for the second time as a refugee.

 In 1988, he participated in the Gulan Revolution, held the rank of Sarpal, and participated in several battles. In 1991, he returned to Kurdistan with Nechirvan Barzani and participated in the uprising in the cities of Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk. In 1995, he was transferred to the First Special Army. In 2000, he was retired. On December 16, 2010, at the Thirteenth Congress of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, he was awarded the Barzani the Immortal Medal by President Masoud Barzani for his struggle and resistance in the Second Barzan Revolution, the Republic of Mahabad, the journey toward the Soviet Union, the Aylul Revolution, the Gulan Revolution, and the uprising. 

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