Biography

Telo Baqi Muhammad was born in 1906 in the village of Zoregvan, affiliated with the Barzan sub-district in the Mergasor district of Erbil province. Before going to the Soviet Union, he was married, and his wife, named Piroz Mahir Muhammad Rashid, had two sons named Hamid Telo (1928) and Zubair Telo (1964-1983). In 1983, during the Anfal of the Barzanis, he was forcibly disappeared.

Struggle Record

Telo Baqi Muhammad left with the force on May 23, 1947, after the large meeting in the village of Dre and the decision to go to the Soviet Union. He was wounded twice in the Reraw battles. 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 an open-air compound surrounded by barbed wire in the city of Nakhchivan in the Republic of Azerbaijan for forty days. 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 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, 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, they were taught lessons in the Kurdish language by some of their companions who were literate.

After the poor treatment of his 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 collective farms (Kolkhozes) (lands that people rented from the government and later returned the government's share).

After much effort and the sending of 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 Barzani's 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.

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 by implementing article (11) based on the amended Law No. 19 of 1959, he and his companions were covered by a 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. 

He participated in the Aylul Revolution and was a Sergeant. On July 31, 1983, during the Anfal operation of the Barzanis, he was forcibly disappeared by the Iraqi government in the Qushtapa complex along with two sons and one grandson named Hamid Telo (1927-1983), Zubair Telo (1964-1983), and Abdulaziz Hamid (1955-1983).

Sources:

    1. Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board

    2. Hamid Gardi, Summary of History, First Edition, (Erbil - Aras Printing and Publishing House - Ministry of Education Press - 2004).
    3. Rikar Mizuri, Women of Ross, Displacement, Anfal, and Genocide, First Edition, (Erbil - Minara Press - 2010).
    4. Rikar Mizuri, The Tragedy of the Barzanis, First Edition, (Erbil - Haji Hashim Press - 2013).
    5. Sha'ban Ali Sha'ban, Some Political and Historical Information, Third Edition, (Erbil - Rojhalat Press - 2013).
    6. Omar Hamza Salih, Genocide and Crimes of the Ba'ath Regime against the Barzanis 1975-1991 from the Perspective of Witnesses and Documents, First Edition, (Erbil - Rojhalat Press - 2017).
    7. Karwan Muhammad Majid, The Barzanis from Mahabad to the Soviet Union, First Edition, (Sulaymaniyah - Paywand Press - 2011).
    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).