Biography

Salih Ahmed Abdullah was born in the village of Badi.

Struggle History

On October 11, 1945, after the collapse of the second Barzan revolution, he crossed with Mustafa Barzani and his companions to 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. 

After the fall of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad and the return of Barzani from Eastern Kurdistan to Southern Kurdistan, he participated in the Battle of Naghadeh and the Battle of Oshnavieh in Eastern Kurdistan. He was also among the Peshmerga who returned to the Shirwan and Mazuri region through the territory of Northern Kurdistan via the Khwakurk route and the Barazgar plain on April 19, 1947.

After their return, General Mustafa Barzani held a meeting with his companions on April 15, 1947, in the village of Argosh and gave them the choice to stay or go to the Soviet Union. There, all his companions decided to continue and go to the Soviet Union. On May 23, 1947, he accompanied General Mustafa Barzani towards the Soviet Union and participated in the Battle of the Kotol (Qotur) Valley 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. 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 officers of the Republic of Azerbaijan, they performed 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 bad treatment of Jafar Bagirov towards his companions, 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 to the collective villages of the Soviet Union and worked in the Kolkhoz fields (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 ordered the formation of 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 Vriviski, so Salih Ahmed Abdullah 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, according to both the third and seventh articles and paragraph (A) of the tenth article, and by working according to 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 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 1961, after the outbreak of the great Aylul Revolution, Salih Ahmed Abdullah took up the arms of the revolution again and continued his struggle.

Sources:

1- Hamid Gardi, Summary of History, First Edition, (Erbil - Aras Publishing and Distribution 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 Abu Bakr, 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' Going to the Soviet Union, First Edition (Culture Printing House - Erbil - 1997).

8- Laith Abdul-Muhsin Jawad Al-Zubaidi, The July 14, 1958 Revolution in Iraq, (Baghdad - Al-Rashid House 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 Banks of the Aras, translated by Shawkat Sheikh Yazdin, First Edition, (Pirmam - 1996).

11- Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.