Biography

Salih Muhammad Qurtas was born in 1927 in the village of Lerabiri in the Mergasor district of Erbil Governorate. In 1975, after the collapse of the Aylul Revolution , he was displaced to the country of Iran. In 1977, he returned and was deported to southern Iraq. In 1981, he was displaced to the country of Iran again, and in 1991, he returned to the Kurdistan Region. He passed away in 2012.

Struggle Record

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

After arriving in the Soviet Union, on June 19, 1947, along with all his companions, they 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 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 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 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 the Kurdish language.

After Jafar Baghirov's poor treatment of Barzani's 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, 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 collective farms (kolkhozes) (land that people rented from the government and later gave back the government's share). 

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, and the committee's decision was that they should all be gathered in the city of Vriviski, so Salih Muhammad Qurtas 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 in accordance with 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, 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.

In 1961, he joined the Peshmerga Forces of the Aylul Revolution and became a Peshmerga and participated in the battles, and also after the collapse of the revolution and the re-ignition of the Gulan Revolution , he joined the Peshmerga Forces again and became a Peshmerga. 

Sources:

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

2- Sha'ban Ali Sha'ban, Some Political and Historical Information, Third Edition, (Erbil - Rojhalat Press - 2013).

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

4- Abdul Rahman Mullah Habib Abu Bakr, The Barzan Tribe between 1931 - 1991, First Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Culture Press - 2001).

5- Karwan Muhammad Majid, The Barzanis from Mahabad to the Soviets, First Edition, (Sulaymaniyah - Paywand Press - 2011).

6- Hataw Magazine, Issue 154, Sixth Year, Erbil, Kurdistan Press, 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 (Enlightenment Press - 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 Press - 1998).

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

11- Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.