Biography

Sadiq Khalil Yahya was born in 1927 in the village of Kaniata, affiliated with the Sherwan Mazin sub-district in the Mergasor district of Erbil province. When he was six years old, on June 21, 1932, he and his family became refugees in the Republic of Turkey. After going to the Soviet Union, he studied there and received a bachelor's degree in the oil department from the University of Uta-Bersk. After returning from the Soviet Union, in 1959 he was employed as an employee at the sugar factory in Mosul. In 1971, he was a Russian language translator in Erbil. On March 2, 2020, he passed away in Salahaddin (Erbil) and was buried in the Muse Maghribi cemetery.

Struggle Record

After the collapse of the second Barzan revolution on October 11, 1945, he headed to Eastern Kurdistan. On March 31, 1946, he served as 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 battles of Qarawa and Mirdei in the Saqqez region (Eastern Kurdistan). After the collapse of the Republic of Kurdistan, on March 19, 1947, he participated in the battle of Oshnavieh and Naghadeh (Eastern Kurdistan). On April 19, 1947, he decided to continue the resistance under the command of General Mustafa Barzani On May 23, 1947, he participated in the march towards the Soviet Union. From June 9, 1947, to June 11, 1947, he participated in the battles of the Qotur Valley and the Maku Bridge (Eastern Kurdistan). On June 18, 1947, he crossed the Aras River, which is located on the international border of Iran with the Soviet Union.

After arriving in the Soviet Union, on June 19, 1947, he and all his companions were placed in an open-air compound surrounded by barbed wire in the city of Nakhchivan in the Republic of Azerbaijan for forty days. They were guarded by a group of soldiers and were treated like 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 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, they were taught lessons in learning the Kurdish language by some of their companions who were literate.

After Jafar Baghirov's poor treatment of Barzani's companions, it was decided to move the military camp on August 29, 1948, from the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Charchuk community 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 to the collective villages of the Soviet Union and worked on the collective farms (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 decided to form a committee to investigate the situation of Barzani's companions. Finally, 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.

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 Grozia. 

In 1963, he participated in the Aylul Revolution and participated in the battles. In 1975, after the collapse of the Aylul Revolution he went to the Kingdom of Iran as a refugee and settled in the Ziveh camp, and was later moved to the city of Kashan. In the year 1987, he participated in the Gulan Revolution and participated in its battles. In 1996, he returned to Kurdistan. On December 16, 2010, at the Thirteenth Congress of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, due to his struggle and resistance in the Republic of Kurdistan, the march towards the Soviet Union, Aylul Revolution and Gulan Revolution he was awarded the Barzani Medal by President Masoud Barzani On March 14, 2013, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Dohuk uprising and the anniversary of President Mustafa Barzani he also received two other medals. 

 

Sources:

  1. Hamid Gawhari, The Barzani Medal is the Highest Honor Award, Volume One, (Erbil - Haji Hashim Printing House - 2015), pp. 457-458.

  2. Hamid Gardi, Summary of History, First Edition, (Erbil - Aras Printing and Publishing House - Ministry of Education Printing House - 2004), pp. 44, 51, 60, 62, 67, 80, 90, 95, 133, 155.

  3. Safar Zhazhuki, Companion of the Immortal Barzani to the former Soviet Union Sadiq Khalil Kanietayi passed away, Khabat Newspaper, Organ of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Issue 5945, Erbil, March 3, 2020, p. 4.

  4. Sha'ban Ali Sha'ban, Some Political and Historical Information, Third Edition, (Erbil - Rojhalat Printing House - 2013), p. 42.

  5. Shawkat Sheikh Yazdin, The Golden Jubilee of the Peshmerga, First Edition, (Pirmam - Khabat Printing House - 1996), p. 25.

  6. Salih Yusuf Sufi, Chronology of Kurdistan and the World, First Edition, Volume Two, (Dohuk - Dohuk Governorate Printing House - 2013), pp. 577, 607, 619, 856.

  7. Salih Yusuf Sufi, Chronology of Kurdistan and the World, First Edition, Volume Three, (Dohuk - Dohuk Governorate Printing House - 2013), p. 1005.

  8. Omar Farouqi, Sardar Dana: The Life and Struggles of the Late Mullah Mustafa Barzani, Second Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Education Printing House - 2002), p. 39.

  9. Abdulrahman Mullah Habib Abu Bakr, The Barzan Tribe between 1931 - 1991, First Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Culture Printing House - 2001), pp. 121, 126-127.

  10. Abdullah Ghafur, Geographical Dictionary of Erbil, (Erbil - Haji Hashim Printing House - 2015), pp. 290, 429.

  11. Karwan Muhammad Majid, The Barzanis from Mahabad to the Soviet Union, first edition, (Sulaymaniyah - Paywand Printing House - 2011), pp. 84, 94-96.

  12. Hataw Magazine, issue 154, sixth year, Erbil, Kurdistan Printing House, Friday, April 15, 1959, pp. 2, 4.

  13. From the memoir of the martyr commander Haso Mirxan Zhazhoki, 62 Days with Barzani: The Barzanis' Journey to the Soviet Union, first edition (Erbil - Roshinbiri Printing House - 1997), p. 118.

  14. Laith Abdul-Muhsin Jawad al-Zubaidi, The July 14, 1958 Revolution in Iraq, (Baghdad - Dar al-Rashid for Publishing - 1979), p. 288.

  15. Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931 - 1958, (Duhok - Khabat Printing House - 1998), pp. 139, 153, 184, 188, 193-197, 200-201, 205, 463.

  16. 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), pp. 205, 270.

  17. Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.