Biography

Shafiq Abdullah Qasim was born in 1930 in the village of Shingil, affiliated with the Barzan sub-district in the Mergasor district of Erbil province. In the Soviet Union, he married Lida Vaydro, and they had a daughter named Lina Shafiq. He was proficient in the Kurdish and Russian languages.

Struggle Record

In 1943, he joined the ranks of the Second Barzan Revolution and participated in the battles of that revolution. On August 19, 1945, by order of the Iraqi military tribunal, all his movable and immovable property was confiscated. On October 11, 1945, after the collapse of the Second Barzan Revolution, he headed to Eastern Kurdistan. On March 31, 1946, he became a Peshmerga in the Barzan Force affiliated with the army of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad and served there, participating in the battles of the Saqqez front.

On April 19, 1947, he returned to the Sherwan and Mizuri region through the Khwakurk route and the Barazgir plain to the territory of Northern Kurdistan. After their return, General Mustafa Barzani held a meeting with his companions on May 15, 1947, in the village of Argosh and gave them the choice to stay or head towards the Soviet Union. There, all the 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 lies 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, 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 moved 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 underwent eight hours of military training daily under the supervision of officers of the Republic of Azerbaijan. At the same time, for four hours daily, some of their companions who were literate taught them lessons in learning the Kurdish language.

After the mistreatment 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 community 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 in the collective farms (Kolkhozes) (the lands that people rented from the government and later gave a share back to the government). 

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 Vriviski; therefore, he 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 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 covered by the 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.

In 1961, he participated in the Aylul Revolution and participated in several battles. On July 31, 1983, during the Anfal operation against the Barzanis, he was forcibly disappeared by the Iraqi government in the Qushtapa complex. 

Sources:

  1. Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.

  2. Rikari Mizuri, Women of Ross and Displacement, Anfal and Genocide, First Edition, (Erbil – Minara Printing House - 2010).

  3. Haider Farooq Al-Samarrai, Zia Jafar and his Political and Economic Role in Iraq, (London – Dar Al-Hikma - 2016).

  4. Rikari Mizuri, Women of Ross and Displacement, Anfal and Genocide, First Edition, (Erbil – Minara Printing House - 2010).

  5. Rikari Mizuri, The Tragedy of the Barzanis, First Edition, (Erbil - Haji Hashim Printing House - 2013).

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

  7. Shawkat Sheikh Yazdin, The Golden Jubilee of the Peshmerga, First Edition, (Pirmam - Khabat Printing House - 1996).

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

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

  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, trans. Shawkat Sheikh Yazdin, First Edition, (Pirmam - Golden Jubilee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - 1996).