Biography

He was born in 1923 in the village of Argosh, affiliated with the Shirwan Mazn district in the Mergasor district of Erbil Governorate. He passed away in 2011 in the city of Erbil and was buried in the Zulfiqar cemetery in the town of Harir..

Struggle Record 

In 1943, he joined the Second Barzan Revolution (1943-1945) and participated in the Republic of Kurdistan in the city of Mahabad in Eastern Kurdistan. In 1947, he and his brothers (Salim Rashid and Hussein Rashid) accompanied General Mustafa Barzani on his historic journey to the Soviet Union.

After the collapse of the Republic of Kurdistan, he was among the Peshmerga who returned on April 19, 1947, via the Khwakurk route and the Barazgar plain to the soil of Northern Kurdistan, from the village of Khwakurk to the village of Argosh and the settled Harky region.

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 22, 1947, he accompanied General Mustafa Barzani towards the Soviet Union and participated in the Battle of the Kotol (Qotur) Valley 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 compound surrounded by barbed wire, and were guarded by a group of soldiers. They were 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, Ayulakh, 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 officers of the Republic of Azerbaijan, were given eight hours of military training daily. At the same time, for four hours daily, they were taught lessons in the Kurdish language by some of their companions who were literate..

After the mistreatment 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 compound 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 collective farms (Kolkhozes) (the lands that people rented from the government and later gave the government's share back). 

After much effort and the sending of 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 the Barzani companions. Eventually, the committee's decision was that they should all be gathered in the city of Vriviski, so Muhammad Rashid Shamdin went to the city of Vriviski in the Soviet Union in November 1951..

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

After their return to the homeland in 1961 and the outbreak of the Aylul Revolution he returned to his Peshmerga duties and participated in the Aylul Revolution In recognition of his efforts and hard work for the success of the Kurdistan liberation movement, at the 13th Congress of the Kurdistan Democratic Party by President Masoud Barzani he was awarded the Immortal Barzani Medal..

Source:

1- Archive of the Encyclopedia Board of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.