Biography

Salim Aziz Salim was born in 1925 in the village of Korke, affiliated with the Goratu sub-district in the Mergasor district of Erbil province. He studied in the Soviet Union and received an institute diploma in the agricultural department of the University of Divinkoy in the Soviet Union. He was proficient in the Kurdish and Russian languages. He passed away on the night of March 24-25, 2011.

Struggle Record

Salim Aziz Salim joined the ranks of the Second Barzan Revolution in 1943. On October 20, 1943, he participated in the capture of the Chame police station, on November 6, 1943, he participated in the capture of the Goratu police station, and on November 10, 1943, he participated in the capture of the Mazne 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 and the battles of Kune Ruvi, Ble, Barzan, and Rezani.

 After the collapse of the Second Barzan Revolution on October 11, 1945, he headed to Eastern Kurdistan. On March 31, 1946, he became a Peshmerga in the Barzani force affiliated with the army of the Republic of Kurdistan. On April 29, 1946, he participated in the Battle of Qarawa in the Saqqez region, and on May 3, 1946, he participated in the Battle of Malqareni.

 After the collapse of the Republic of Kurdistan, on March 3, 1947, he participated in the Battle of Nelos, and on March 13-14, 1947, he participated in the Battle of Gujari. He was among the Peshmerga who returned to the Shirwan and Mizuri region through the Khwakurk road and the Barazgir plain via the territory of Northern Kurdistan on April 19, 1947.

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 of staying or heading towards the Soviet Union. There, all his 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 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 officers of the Republic of Azerbaijan, were given eight hours of military training daily. At the same time, they were taught Kurdish language lessons daily for four hours by some of their companions who were literate.

After the poor treatment 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 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 among the collective villages of the Soviet Union and worked on the 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 decided to form a committee to investigate the situation of the Barzani companions. Eventually, the committee's decision was that they should all be gathered in the city of Vriviski, so 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, 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 and settled in the village of Korke. On September 11, 1961, he participated in the Aylul Revolution, participated in the battles between Ble and Barzan and Mount Pirefat, participated in the Battle of Sari Akre on June 14-15, 1963, and participated in the Battle of Goraze in 1967. In 1975, after the collapse of the Aylul Revolution, he returned to his homeland.

 In 1979, he was relocated to Diana by the Iraqi government. In 1983, he headed to the Islamic Republic of Iran as a refugee, and a year later, he participated in the Gulan Revolution and was a platoon leader in the Peshmerga forces and returned to the Mergasor region with a detachment. In 1987, he participated in the battles of Mergasor and Khwakurk. In 1988, during the chemical bombardment of the Badinan region, he returned to Eastern Kurdistan and settled in the Zewe compound. He returned to Kurdistan on November 27, 1996. He was wounded several times and retired in 1998. On December 16, 2010, at the Thirteenth Congress of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, due to his struggle and resistance in the Second Barzan Revolution, the Republic of Kurdistan, the journey towards the Soviet Union, Aylul Revolution and Gulan Revolution by President Masoud Barzani was awarded the Barzani Medal. 

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