Biography

Sharaf Mala Salam was born in 1927 in the village of Che, located in the Deraluk sub-district of Amedi district in Duhok Governorate. He passed away in Betwata in 1972.

Struggle Record

On May 23, 1947, along with his brother named Iskandar Abdul-Salam, he participated in the march towards the Soviet Union and took part in the battles of the march. On May 23, 1947, he accompanied General Mustafa Barzani towards the Soviet Union and participated in the Battle of Qotur and the Battle of the Maku Bridge. 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 comrades, they were placed in the city of Nakhchivan in the Republic of Azerbaijan for forty days in an open-air compound surrounded by barbed wire. 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 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, they were taught Kurdish language lessons by some of their comrades who were literate.

After the mistreatment of Barzani's comrades 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, along with his comrades, they were distributed in groups and squads by train among the collective villages of the Soviet Union and worked on the Kolkhoz farms (lands that people rented from the government and later gave the government's share back). 

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 comrades, and he immediately ordered the formation of a committee to investigate the Situation of Barzani's comrades. 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.

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 comrades via the ship Grozia through 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 unit Commander (Fasil Commander) and participated in the battles.

Sources:

  1. Kurdistan Regional Government, Ministry of Planning, Administrative Units of the Governorates of the Kurdistan Region and the Number of Families and Population, Erbil, 2009.

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

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

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

  5. Hataw Magazine, Issue 154, Sixth Year, Erbil, Kurdistan Printing House, Friday, April 15, 1959.

  6. In the memoir of Commander Martyr Hasso Mirxan Zhazhoki, 62 Days with Barzani: The Going of the Barzanis to the Soviet Union, First Edition (Erbil - Roshinbiri Printing House - 1997).

  7. Laith Abdul-Muhsin Jawad Al-Zubaidi, The 14 July 1958 Revolution in Iraq, (Baghdad - Dar Al-Rashid for Publishing - 1979).

  8. Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931 - 1958, (Duhok - Khabat Printing House - 1998).

  9. Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Committee.