Sheikh Qadir Sayyid Yunis Sayyid Ali Sayyid Ahmadi Brifkani, known as (Dr. Qadir Brifkani), was a physician and one of the prominent figures of the Aylul Revolution and a very close and trusted comrade of Mustafa Barzani and an unknown soldier on the path of the Kurdish cause. He was born in 1926 in the village of Brifka in the district of Duhok and the Mosul Governorate at the time, into a Sayyid family that traces its lineage back to the family of Sheikh Nureddin Brifkani of the Qadiriyya order. He completed his primary education in the village of Brifkan. He was an intelligent and obedient student. He was from a family whose members consisted of one brother and three sisters named Mustafa, Shams, Aisha, and Khadija. At the beginning of 1940, in his adolescence, after the situation in their village deteriorated, Sheikh Qadir was forced to leave his village with his mother and a sister and headed to the city of Mosul, where he continued and completed his high school education. At the age of 18, like any Iraqi citizen, he was called up for military service, and in 1944, he became a soldier in the Iraqi Army. In 1945, he attended a special military course at the Rashid Military Hospital and later attended a bandaging course, graduating with distinction. He began working as an assistant in the surgery department at the Rashid Military Hospital, and due to his intelligence and successful experiences, he received the rank of military lieutenant. After the Second World War, in 1948, he participated in the Palestine Liberation War and worked in the medical units of the military hospital in the field of surgery. After the war ended, he was transferred by a military order to the city of Kirkuk and began working at the Kirkuk Military Hospital. There, he settled with his mother and got married, becoming the father of two children, a daughter and a son. At that time, a number of young people from Badinan settled in Kirkuk with their families due to their work in the military field. These families formed a strong family relationship with Sheikh Qadir's family, as most of them knew each other, had social interactions, and were residents of the Shatarlu neighborhood of Kirkuk. He worked in the military and surgical field for 18 years. Dr. Sheikh Qadir had a special love for the city of Kirkuk and the people of Kirkuk; a strong Kurdish and social bond connected him to Kirkuk.
Struggle Record
In the early to mid-forties, when the Hiwa Party was expanding in Southern Kurdistan, through a relative of his named Muhammad Sadiq Sharafani and Sayyid Salih Yusifi he joined the party and worked actively as an effective member of the Hiwa Party organization. After the dissolution of the Hiwa Party in 1944, and after the establishment of the Kurdistan Democratic Party he joined the ranks of the Party and became active as a member in the organs of that party.
In 1961, with the outbreak of the Aylul Revolution the great, under the leadership of Mullah Mustafa Barzani and by a decision, comrades who possessed special professions were asked to join the ranks of the revolution.
On August 15, 1962, when Dr. Kamal Khawar, who was the director of the Kirkuk Military Hospital, informed Sheikh Qadir that some of his friends in the party organs had been arrested and it had been revealed, they were trying to arrest him, and he had to leave the city of Kirkuk as soon as possible.
On a dark night, with the help of the cells of the Kurdistan Democratic Party along with a struggling woman who knew the way named the mother of Saeed, he was smuggled through the Khasa of Kirkuk to the Chiman area and was taken to Lieutenant Yusuf. From there, he was secretly taken to the ranks of the revolution in the Cham-i Rezan. Dr. Qadir took a lot of medicine with him into the revolution. At that time, there were two old pharmacies in Kirkuk; the first was the Fakhri Pharmacy, which was a great helper to the revolution. It is worth mentioning that the capable pharmacist Dr. Fakhri Omar Sharif had established the Fakhri Pharmacy in 1959, along with the Fateh Pharmacy. Dr. Fakhri was a patriotic, fearless Kurdish man who spent his entire life in the service of patients and poor and low-income people until late at night. Due to his ability and competence, he had both taken the place of a doctor for the poor of the city and was constantly in the service of the revolution, and he did not hesitate to provide medicine. He would give various types of antibiotics and skin disease medications without a medical prescription to unknown people. This pharmacy had also taken the place of a doctor for the people of the villages.
Later, Sheikh Qadir began working in (Cham-i Rezan) with Dr. Hikmat Hakim, and they established the Revolution Hospital.
Sheikh Qadir's family (wife and children) hid themselves for fear of the government, and their fate remained completely unknown; no one knew where they were. Even Mustafa Barzani himself tried to find them through the secret cells of the party. In Year 1965, through a friend from Sulaymaniyah, Sheikh Qadir married his second wife, Na'ima Abdullah Salih. That woman, as a patriotic and struggling Kurdish woman, worked side by side with Dr. Sheikh Qadir, step by step, during the difficult days and hardships. She was often sent on secret missions to Kirkuk and the surrounding areas to provide medicine and medical supplies for the revolution and to transport the wounded of the revolution for treatment in Sulaymaniyah or Kirkuk. Na'ima Khan was wounded in 1966 while she was pregnant by the bombing of an Iraqi aircraft, Dr. Mahmoud Osman sent her to the Country of Iran for treatment.
One of the main pillars of the revolution was the health sector, which was established from the very beginning of the revolution to serve the sick and wounded of the revolution and had a direct relationship with the lives of the Peshmerga and citizens. Through this sector, health services were provided to citizens and Peshmerga forces. At that time, the liberated areas under the control of the revolution were in a very bad situation in all aspects, including health, as a siege had been imposed on the areas under the control of the revolution from all sides. The government of Iraq did not allow any equipment or medicine to enter the liberated areas, so the provision of medicine for thousands of Peshmerga and citizens was very difficult and arduous. There were very few health workers, doctors, and nurses, but Dr. Sheikh Qadir Brifkani had a lot of military, nursing, and surgical experience. As many witnesses recount, he performed many difficult and emergency surgeries without general anesthesia, and some of those Peshmerga are still alive today. At that time, the number of professionals and educated people was generally low. At that time, Sheikh Qadir thought of opening several nursing courses for a number of students. Each course lasted three months and certificates were given to the students. In 1966, a split occurred within the ranks of the revolution between the Political Bureau and the leadership, and the Jalali and Malai factions separated as two opposing forces. Sheikh Qadir, along with Mustafa Barzani the immortal, went to Ranya, where at the request of Mullah Mustafa Barzani he opened a health center in the village of Bolle to treat Peshmerga comrades and the people of the region, and he continued for several years with Dr. Hikmat Hakim. From the very beginning of his transfer to Ranya, the Iraqi military court issued a sentence in absentia to revoke his trust and military rank and arrest him, and his property and assets were confiscated. However, he had a very firm belief in the revolution, which is why he continued his political struggle, Peshmerga activities, and his professional work, because the ideology of revolutionary belief always prevailed over his individual and personal interests.
Later, by the decision of Dr. Mahmoud Osman the Secretary of the Party's Political Bureau, he was sent to the Rizgari Force hospital, where he became the head of the hospital and fulfilled his duty. After working for several years in the Rizgari Force, he was transferred to the Kawa Force hospital, where Haso Mirxan Zhazhoki was the force commander at that time, and he performed his work there faithfully. Later, at the request of Mustafa Barzani he went to the Akre Force hospital in the villages of Shush and Sharman until 1973. In that same year, by the decision of the Executive Bureau, he was transferred to the Betwata area to Ali Shaban and managed the hospital there as well. In most of the battles, as a brave and courageous doctor, he participated, including the Battle of Handren in May 1966, where he fulfilled his duty as a doctor from the beginning of the battle to the end without rest.
The continuation of the conflict, the war, and the intense attacks of the Iraqi army in 1974, and the bombing of citizens, villages, and areas of the revolution with napalm bombs, forced Sheikh Qadir and his comrades to establish a revolution hospital on the Iraq-Iran border to treat the sick and wounded. Again, the place was not safe, and with the aim of providing a safer place for the sick and wounded, they went to Eastern Kurdistan (Iran) in the city of Mahabad, where he became the head of the Youth House hospital.
After the collapse of the Aylul Revolution (1961-1975), like hundreds of other families, they were displaced to Eastern Kurdistan and reached the Zewe camp. In Zewe, for six months, he and his family did not know any news about each other and he was separated from his home and children. After finding each other, by the decision of Barzani, his family reached Mahabad and settled there.
At the end of 1975, after returning to Iraq, they settled in the city of Sulaymaniyah. In 1978, he returned to Kirkuk. Obviously, living for a suspected person like Sheikh Qadir in a city like Kirkuk was not easy. At that time, he no longer had a military rank and had been dismissed from his profession. During that period, he faced many hardships and obstacles, including arrest and interrogation, and he was even often pressured to become a Baathist and work with them, or to join the Special Forces battalions or become a Jash. He did not agree to these demands and rejected all ranks, positions, and statuses. For this very reason, he had special respect among the people of Kirkuk and his friends and comrades. He rejected many ranks, positions, and statuses for the sake of his firm belief in the cause, as witnessed by hundreds of people in that city and the love of the people and his comrades.
In 1991, during the Uprising, he opened his compassionate arms to the Peshmerga and the uprising seekers of that city. The first door that was opened for the uprising people, the Peshmerga, and the armed cells was the door of Dr. Sheikh Qadir Brifkani's house. At four o'clock in the morning, from the roof of his house in the Yadgar neighborhood, opposite the Baath Party headquarters where most of the Jash and party comrades had hidden themselves, the battle began with light, medium, and heavy weapons until the evening. It was a very big battle until that place was cleared, and dozens of party comrades, Popular Army members, and Jash were killed in that place, and some escaped. In all the alleys and streets of Kirkuk, the battle continued. Sheikh Qadir, based on his military experience, guided the Peshmerga. At that time, opening the door for the Peshmerga and the uprising people carried a heavy penalty, because if the uprising had not started that day, the plan was to start arresting women after the Anfal of the men; they had even brought many buses to the headquarters garage. But fortunately, they could not carry out that sinister decision.
Clearly, this happiness did not last long; the Iraqi army's attack began, and thousands of people were killed and displaced. That is why, once again, the wave of displacement of the people of Kirkuk began in the spring of 1991 towards the Iranian border, and along with his family, he became a refugee in the Country of Iran. Upon reaching the Iranian border, just a few hours later, the International Committee of the Red Cross arrived there and set up a first aid tent. Dr. Sheikh Qadir and his daughter, named Begard Qadir Brifkani, who was a radiology student, began working voluntarily with the Red Cross team. Later, they were moved to a camp in Saqqez, where, as a loyal Peshmerga, he managed a voluntary health center for the purpose of medical treatment. In the middle of 1991, he returned to Kirkuk, but for the fifth time, his house was looted, and the Ba'athists occupied his house with threats. Due to his cooperation and guidance of the Peshmerga in killing dozens of Party comrades, he was forced to leave Kirkuk. This heavy sorrow had a great impact on his health, and because of that, he suffered a brain hemorrhage, and later he moved with his family to the city of Duhok and settled there. However, due to the effects of his Illness, he passed away on April 28, 1998.
Source:
Interview with Begard Qadir Yunis Brifkani, 2026