Biography

Hussein Mahmud Mustafa, known as Gorgo, was born in 1900 in the village of Babke, affiliated with the Piran sub-district in the Mergasor district of Erbil province. He knew Kurdish and Russian. He passed away in 1975 in the Zewe complex and was buried in the Mala Bask cemetery.

Struggle Record

Gorgo Babkayi joined the ranks of the first Barzan Revolution in 1932. On December 7, 1932, he participated in the Battle of Barqi Bag, and on April 3, 1932, he participated in the Battle of Meydandari Dolavazhi. On June 21, 1932, after the collapse of the revolution, he became a refugee in the Republic of Turkey. In 1943, he joined the ranks of the second Barzan Revolution, and on October 12, 1943, he participated in the capture of the Kherazok police station.

 On August 19, 1945, by order of the Iraqi Military Tribunal, all his movable and immovable property was seized. On September 5, 1945, he participated in the capture of the Meydan Morik police station. After the collapse of the second Barzan Revolution on October 11, 1945, he headed to Eastern Kurdistan.

 On March 31, 1946, he was a Peshmerga in the Barzan force affiliated with the army of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad. After the collapse of the Republic of Kurdistan, on March 3, 1947, he participated in the Battle of Nelos, on March 13-14, 1947, he participated in the Battle of Gujar, and on March 19, 1947, he participated in the Battle of Shno and Naghadeh.

He was among the Peshmerga who, on April 19, 1947, returned to the Shirwan and Mazuri region through the Khwakurk and Bazargir plain via the territory of Northern Kurdistan.

After their return, General Mustafa Barzani held a meeting with his companions on May 6, 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, he accompanied General Mustafa Barzani towards the Soviet Union and participated in the Battle of Gali Qotur and the Battle of Maku Bridge. After much hardship and fatigue, on June 18, 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, 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. They were guarded by a group of soldiers and were treated as prisoners of war in terms of food, clothing, and movement. Later, by 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 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 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 Kurdish language lessons by some of their companions who were literate.

After the mistreatment by 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, along with his companions, they 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 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. Eventually, the committee's decision was that they should all be gathered in the city of Vrevsky, so the aforementioned 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 according to both the third and seventh articles and paragraph (A) of the tenth article, and by working with 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 returned to Kurdistan with his companions by the ship Grozia via the port of Basra in the south of the Republic of Iraq. 

 In the Year 1961, he participated in the Aylul Revolution and was a Sergeant. He participated in the battles of Gali Omar Agha, Goraz, Handren, Pers, Sari Akre, and Zawita. In 1975, after the collapse of the Aylul Revolution, he went to the Kingdom of Iran as a refugee.

Sources:
  1. Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.
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  3. Haydar Faruq al-Samarrai, Diya Jafar and his Political and Economic Role in Iraq, (London – Dar al-Hikma - 2016).
  4. Salih Yusuf Sufi, Chronology of Kurdistan and the World, First Edition, Volume Two, (Duhok - Duhok Governorate Press - 2013).
  5. Omar Faruq, Sardar Dana: The Life and Struggles of the Late Mullah Mustafa Barzani, Second Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Education Press - 2002).
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  7. Abdullah Ghafur, Geographical Dictionary of Erbil, (Erbil - Kurdish Academy Publications - Haji Hashim Press - 2015).
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  9. Hataw Magazine, Issue 154, Sixth Year, Erbil, Kurdistan Press, Friday, April 15, 1959.
  10. In the memoir of the martyr commander Haso Mirxan Zhazhoki, 62 Days with Barzani: The Barzanis' Journey to the Soviet Union, first edition (Erbil - Roshinbiri Printing House - 1997 AD).
  11. Laith Abdul-Muhsin Jawad al-Zubaidi, The 14 July 1958 Revolution in Iraq, (Baghdad - Dar al-Rashid for Publishing - 1979 AD).
  12. Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931-1958, (Duhok - Khabat Printing House - 1998 AD).
  13. Najaf Qoli Pessian, From Bloody Mahabad to the Banks of the Aras, trans. Shawkat Sheikh Yazdin, first edition, (Pirmam - Golden Jubilee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - 1996 AD)..