Salih Ali Ziyab was born in 1925 in the village of Hevnka in the Barzan sub-district, affiliated with the Mergasor district of Erbil Governorate. In 1975, after the collapse of the Aylul Revolution he became a refugee in the country of Iran. In 1976, he returned and was deported to southern Iraq. He passed away in southern Iraq in 1976.
Struggle RecordOn May 23, 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, 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-air compound 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 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, 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 poor treatment 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 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 among 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, 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. The committee's decision was that they should all be gathered in the city of Vriviski, so Salih Ali Ziyab 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 working with article (11) based on the amended Law No. 19 of the Year 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. 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, he joined the Peshmerga forces of the Aylul Revolution and became a Peshmerga.
Sources:- 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 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 departure of the Barzanis 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 - 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, trans. Shawkat Sheikh Yazdin, First Edition, (Pirmam - 1996).
11- Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.