Biography

Salih Palani was born in 1915 in the village of Palana, affiliated with the Shirwan Mazin sub-district in the Mergasor district of Erbil province. He studied in the Soviet Union and in 1954 was able to obtain an institute degree in the agriculture department. He married twice there, first to Maryam and second to Klawa, and they had three children; two of his children passed away. Salih was appointed as an employee in the Atrush Agriculture Department in 1959, and later transferred to the Zara'a Agriculture Department, then to the Sulaymaniyah Agriculture Department, and later to the Mergasor Agriculture Department. He passed away in 1993 in the Qushtapa complex and was buried there. He was proficient in Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish, and Russian languages. 

Struggle Record

Salih Omar Haji left military service in 1943 and joined the ranks of the Second Barzan Revolution. On October 2, 1943, he participated in the capture of the Shanadar police station, on October 12, he participated in the capture of the Kherazok police station, and on October 20, he participated in the capture of the Shirwan Mazin police station. 

On August 8, 1945, he participated in the capture of the Mergasor police station, and on August 19, 1945, by order of the Iraqi military martial court, all his movable and immovable property was seized. 

On October 11, 1945, after the collapse of the Second Barzan Revolution, along with Mustafa Barzani and his companions, he crossed into Eastern Kurdistan. After the establishment of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad, on March 31, 1946, he defended the Republic within the framework of the Barzan force and participated in the Battle of Saqqez. 

After the fall of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad and Barzani's return from Eastern Kurdistan to Southern Kurdistan, he was among the Peshmerga who returned to the Shirwan and Mazuri region on April 19, 1947, via the Khwakurk and Barazgir plain through the territory of Northern Kurdistan.

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 head towards the Soviet Union. There, all his companions decided to continue and head towards the Soviet Union. On May 23, 1947, he accompanied General Mustafa Barzani towards 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 is located 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, guarded by a group of soldiers, and treated like 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, Ayolakh, 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 the 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 lessons in learning the Kurdish language.

After the mistreatment of Barzani's companions by Jafar Bagirov, 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 in groups and squads by train among the collective villages of the Soviet Union and worked in 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, 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 Barzani's companions. Eventually, the committee's decision was that they should all be gathered in the city of Vrevitsk, so he went to the city of Vrevitsk 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 the implementation of article (11) based on the amended Law No. 19 of 1959, he and his companions were granted a general amnesty. 

In 1958, the Republic of Iraq was established under the presidency of Abdul 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 Gruzia.  

 He participated in the Aylul Revolution and participated in the battles. In 1975, after the collapse of the Aylul Revolution he remained in his homeland. In 1980, he was displaced by the Iraqi government to the Qushtapa complex and was later retired. He participated in the Gulan Revolution and participated in the battles. He was wounded twice in the battles of Sanandaj and Saqqez.

Sources:

  1. Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.

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

  3. Haider Faruq al-Samarrai, Diya Jafar and his Political and Economic Role in Iraq, (London – Dar al-Hikma - 2016).

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

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

  6. Salih Yusuf Sufi, Chronology of Kurdistan and the World, First Edition, Volume Two, (Duhok - Duhok Province Press - 2013).

  7. Salih Yusuf Sufi, Chronology of Kurdistan and the World, First Edition, Volume Three, (Duhok - Duhok Governorate Press - 2013).

  8. Hataw Magazine, Issue 154, Sixth Year, Erbil, Kurdistan Press, Friday, April 15, 1959.

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

  10. Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931 - 1958, (Duhok - Khabat Press - 1998).

  11. Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931 - 1958, Volume One, (Erbil - Unknown Press - 2012).

  12. Najaf Qoli Pessian, From Bloody Mahabad to the Banks of the Aras, Trans. Shawkat Sheikh Yazdin, First Edition, (Pirmam - Golden Jubilee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - 1996).