Biography

Salih Abdullah Faqi was born in 1930 in the village of Bibana in the Barzan sub-district, Mergasor district, Erbil governorate. He passed away in 1998.

Struggle Record

On May 23, 1947, he accompanied General Mustafa Barzani towards the Soviet Union and participated in the Battle of Kotol (Qotur) and the Battle of Maku Bridge, and 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, towards the Soviet Union.

After arriving in the Soviet Union, on June 19, 1947, along with all his companions, he was placed in the city of Nakhchivan in the Republic of Azerbaijan for forty days in an open compound surrounded by barbed wire, guarded by a group of soldiers, and 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, Ayolakh, 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, they were given eight hours of military training daily. At the same time, for four hours a day, they were taught lessons in the Kurdish language by some of their companions who were literate.

After the poor treatment of Barzani's companions by Jafar Baghirov, it is 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 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, 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, and finally, the committee's decision was that they should all be gathered in the city of Vriviski, so Salih Abdullah Faqi went to the city of Vriviski 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 working with article (11) based on the amended Law No. 19 of 1959, he and his companions were covered by the general amnesty. 

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

Sources:

1- Hamid Gardi, Summary of History, First Edition, (Erbil - Aras Printing and Publishing House - Ministry of Education Printing House - 2004).

2- Shaban Ali Shaban, Some Political and Historical Information, Third Edition, (Erbil - Rojhalat Printing House - 2013).

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

4- Abdulrahman Mullah Habib Abubakr, Barzan Tribe between 1931-1991, First Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Culture Printing House - 2001).

5- Karwan Muhammad Majid, The Barzanis from Mahabad to the Soviet Union, First Edition, (Sulaymaniyah - Paywand Printing House - 2011).

6- Hataw Magazine, Issue 154, Sixth Year, Erbil, Kurdistan Printing House, Friday, April 15, 1959.

7- From the memoirs of the martyr commander Haso Mirxan Zhazhoki, 62 Days with Barzani: The Barzanis' Journey to the Soviet Union, First Edition (Roshinbiri Printing House - Erbil - 1997).

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

9- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931-1958, (Duhok - Khabat Printing House - 1998).

10- Najaf Quli Pesyan, From Bloody Mahabad to the Shores of Aras, translated by Shawkat Sheikh Yazdin, First Edition, (Pirmam - 1996).

11- Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Committee.