Biography

Suleiman Haddo Zarari was born in the year 1930 in the village of Zarara, which belongs to the Kurtu sub-district and the Mergasor district in Erbil Governorate. He studied in the Soviet Union, obtained a Bachelor's degree in Agriculture from the Soviet Union in the year 1954, and married Valanya in the Soviet Union. He was fluent in Kurdish, Arabic, and Russian. He passed away on December 4, 2014. 

Struggle Record

He joined the ranks of the Second Revolution of Barzan in the year 1943 and participated in several battles. On August 19, 1945, all his movable and immovable assets and properties were confiscated by order of the Iraqi Military Court. After the setback of the Second Revolution of Barzan, he moved to East Kurdistan on October 11, 1945. On March 31, 1946, he joined as a Peshmerga in the Barzan force belonging to the army of the Democratic Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad. He participated in the Battle of Qalawa in the Saqqez region on April 29, 1946. 

  After the collapse of the Democratic Republic of Kurdistan on March 19, 1947, he participated in the battles of Naghadeh and Shino. He was among his Peshmerga comrades, returning on 19/4/1947 to the Shirwan and Mazuri regions via (Khwakurk and the Barazkara plain). 

After their return, General Mustafa Barzani held a meeting with his comrades in the village of Arkush on 15/5/1947 and gave them the choice to stay or go to the Soviet Union. There, all his comrades decided to continue and head to the Soviet Union. On May 23, 1947, he accompanied General Mustafa Barzani to the Soviet Union. He participated in the battles of Qotur and the Maku Bridge, and after great hardship and extreme exhaustion, he crossed the Aras River on June 18, 1947, which is located on the border between Iran and the Soviet Union.

After their arrival in the Soviet Union, on June 19, 1947, he and all his comrades were detained in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan, for forty days in an open compound surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by soldiers. They were treated as prisoners of war in terms of food, clothing, and transportation. On the 23rd, by decision of the Soviet government, they were later distributed to the regions of Aghdam, Lachin, Yevlakh, and Kalbajar in the Republic of Azerbaijan. On December 10, 1947, they were moved to a camp on the Caspian Sea in the capital of the Azerbaijani Republic, Baku. On the 23rd of the same month, they received military uniforms and were receiving military training for eight hours daily under the supervision of officers from the Republic of Azerbaijan. At the same time, they were receiving lessons in the Kurdish language for four hours daily from some of their educated comrades.

After Jafar Baghirov's mistreatment of his comrades, Barzani decided to move his military compound from Azerbaijan on August 29, 1948, to the Jarjuk compound near the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, where they continued their military training.

In March 1949, he and his comrades were distributed in groups by train to collective villages in the Soviet Union and worked on Kolkhoz farms (land that people would rent from the government and then pay a share to the government).

After great efforts and sending several letters from General Barzani to Stalin, Stalin finally received a letter in which Barzani spoke about the suffering of his comrades, and he immediately decided to form a committee to investigate the situation of Barzani's comrades. The committee's final decision was that they should be gathered in the city of Vrevsky, so he headed to the Soviet city of Vrevsky in November 1951.

After the July 14, 1958 revolution in Iraq and the return of General Mustafa Barzani on February 25, 1959, a general amnesty included Barzani and his comrades according to Articles 3(f) and 7, Paragraph (a) of Article 10, and the implementation of Article 11 based on Law No. 19 as amended in the year 1959. 

The Republic of Iraq was established in the year 1958 under the leadership of Abd al-Karim Qasim, and on April 16, 1959, he returned with his comrades to Kurdistan on the ship Krusya via the port of Basra in the south of the Republic of Iraq.

He participated in the Aylul Revolution in the year 1961, and he also participated in the battles of Sari Beris, Korz, and Mount Handren. In the year 1963, he participated in the battles of Shush and Sharmana, and on June 14-15, 1963, he participated in the Battle of Sari Akre. In the year 1974, he worked in the Artillery of the Revolution unit. In the year 1975, after the setback of the Aylul Revolution, he returned to the land of his ancestors. The Iraqi regime burned his village in the year 1981, and he took refuge in the Islamic Republic of Iran and settled in the Zeweh compound. He participated in the Gulan Revolution in the year 1983, returned to Kurdistan in the year 1991, and lived in the village of Zarara. He was retired in the year 1993, and on December 16, 2010, at the Thirteenth Congress of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, he received the Barzani Medal from President Masoud Barzani in recognition of his struggle and resistance in the Second Revolution of Barzan, the Democratic Republic of Kurdistan, his march to the Soviet Union, and his contributions to the Aylul and Gulan revolutions. 

Sources

1. Hamid al-Jawhari, Barzani Medal: The Highest Honorary Award, Volume One, (Erbil - Al-Haj Hashim Press – 2015).

2. Haidar Farooq al-Samarrai, Dia Jafar and His Political and Economic Role in Iraq, (London – Dar al-Hikma - 2016).

3. Shaban Ali Shaban, Some Political and Historical Information, Third Edition, (Erbil – Rojhalat Press – 2013).

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

5. Abd al-Rahman al-Mulla Habib Abu Bakr, The Barzan Tribe Between 1931 - 1991, First Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Culture Press - 2001).

6. Abdullah Ghafoor, Erbil Geographical Dictionary, (Erbil - Kurdish Academy Publications - Al-Haj Hashim Press – 2015).

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

8. Hataw Magazine, Issue 154, Sixth Year, Erbil, Kurdistan Press, Friday, April 15, 1959.

9. From the memoirs of the Martyr Commander Hasso Mirxan Zazoki, 62 Days with Barzani, The Barzanis' Departure to the Soviet Union, First Edition (Erbil – Culture Press – 1997).

10. Laith Abd al-Muhsin Jawad al-Zubaidi, The July 14, 1958 Revolution in Iraq, (Baghdad - Dar al-Rashid for Publishing - 1979).

11. Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1931-1958, (Duhok, Khabat Press, 1998). 

12. Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement 1961-1975, Volume Three, Part One, (Erbil - Ministry of Education Press – 2004).

13.  Archive of the Encyclopedia Committee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.