Biography

Wasman Shekho Ahmed was born in 1921 in the village of Shanadari in the Mergasor District of Erbil Province. He was married. In 1945, he became a refugee in Eastern Kurdistan. In 1975, after the collapse of the Aylul Revolution, he became a refugee in the country of Iran. He passed away in 1998 in the village of Zhazhoki in the Goratu sub-district and was buried in the village cemetery. He knew the Kurdish and Russian languages.

Struggle Record

In 1943, after Mela Mustafa Barzani returned from Sulaymaniyah to the Barzan region and the outbreak of the Second Barzan Revolution (1943-1945), he joined the ranks of the revolutionary army. In 1945, after the collapse of the revolution, he became a refugee in Eastern Kurdistan (Iran) alongside the Barzani fighters and families. After the establishment of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad at the beginning of 1946, he became a Peshmerga of the Republic in the Barzan Force. After the fall of the Republic of Kurdistan in December 1946, he, alongside the Barzan revolutionary army led by General Mustafa Barzani, returned to Southern Kurdistan through the Nazdardagh region at the Iran-Iraq-Turkey border triangle after several battles and fights against the Imperial Iranian Army, and settled in the ranks of the army in the Mizuri tribal region..

On May 22, 1947, he accompanied General Mustafa Barzani towards the Soviet Union and participated in the Battle of Kotol (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 compound surrounded by barbed wire. 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 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, they were trained for eight hours of military exercises 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 poor treatment 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, he and his companions were distributed in groups and squads by train to the collective villages of the Soviet Union, where they 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, a letter finally reached Stalin in which Barzani described the hardships of his companions. He immediately ordered the formation of a committee to investigate the situation of the Barzani companions, and the committee's final decision was that they should all be gathered in the city of Vrevsky. Therefore, 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 Abdul Karim Qasim. Wasman Shekho Ahmed 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.

In 1961, he joined the Peshmerga Forces of the Aylul Revolution, became a Peshmerga, and participated in its battles.

Sources:

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

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

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

4- Omar Farouqi, Sardar Dana: Life and Struggles of the Late Mela Mustafa Barzani, Second Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Education Printing House - 2002).

5- Abdulrahman Mela Habib Abubakr, The Barzan Tribe Between 1931-1991, First Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Culture Printing House - 2001).

6- Abdullah Ghafur, Geographical Dictionary of Erbil, (Erbil - Publications of the Kurdish Academy - Haji Hashim Printing House - 2015).

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

8- From the Memoirs of the Martyr Commander Haso Mirxan Zhazhoki, 62 Days with Barzani: The Departure of the Barzanis to the Soviet Union, First Edition, (Erbil - Culture Printing House - 1997).

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

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

11- Najaf Quli Pesyan, From Bloody Mahabad to the Shores of the Aras, translated by Shawkat Sheikh Yazdin, First Edition, (Pirman - Golden Jubilee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - 1996).

12- Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.