Biography

Yunus Mustafa Omar was born in 1930 in the village of Shanadar, Mergasor District, Erbil Governorate. He was married. In 1975, after the collapse of the Aylul Revolution, he became a refugee in Iran and resided in the Zewe camp in Eastern Kurdistan. In 1994, after the Uprising, he returned to Southern Kurdistan. He passed away in 1995.

Struggle Record

In 1943, following the return of Mullah Mustafa Barzani from Sulaymaniyah to the Barzan region and the outbreak of the Second Barzan Revolution (1943-1945), he joined the ranks of the revolutionary army and participated in the battles to capture the police stations in the Barzan region. In 1945, after the collapse of the revolution, he was displaced to Eastern Kurdistan (Iran) alongside the Barzani fighters and families. After the establishment of the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad at the beginning of 1946, he became a Peshmerga of the Republic in the Barzan force. Following the fall of the Republic of Kurdistan in December 1946, he returned to Southern Kurdistan alongside the Barzani revolutionary army under the command of General Mustafa Barzani after several battles and struggles against the Imperial Iranian Army, crossing through the Nazdardagh area at the Iran-Iraq-Turkey border triangle, and settled in the ranks of the army in the Mazuri tribal area.

On May 22, 1947, he accompanied General Mustafa Barzani towards the Soviet Union and participated in the Battle of Kotol (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 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 as 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 officers of the Republic of Azerbaijan, were given eight hours of military training daily. At the same time, they were taught lessons in the Kurdish language for four hours daily 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 complex 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 farms of the Soviet Union, where they worked on the kolkhoz fields (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 companions. He immediately ordered the formation of a committee to investigate the situation of the Barzani companions, and the committee's final decision was that they should all be gathered in the city of Vrevsky. Therefore, Yunus Mustafa Omar went to the city of Vrevsky 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, Yunus Mustafa Omar returned to Kurdistan with his companions via the ship Grozia through the port of Basra in the south of the Republic of Iraq.

In 1961, he joined the Peshmerga Forces of the Aylul Revolution, became a Peshmerga, and participated in its battles. In 1985, he joined the Peshmerga Forces of the Gulan Revolution and became a Peshmerga.

Sources:

1- Hamid Gawhari, The Barzani Medal: The Highest Award of Honor, Volume One, (Erbil - Haji Hashim Printing House - 2015).

2- Hamid Gardi, Summary of History, First Edition, (Erbil - Aras Printing and Publishing House - Ministry of Education Printing House - 2004).

3- Shaban Ali Shaban, Some Political and Historical Information, Third Edition, (Erbil - Rojhalat Printing House - 2013).

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

5- Abdulrahman Mullah Habib Abubakr, The Barzan Tribe Between 1931-1991, First Edition, (Erbil - Ministry of Culture Printing House - 2001).

6- Abdullah Ghafoor, Geographical Dictionary of Erbil, (Erbil - Kurdish Academy Publications - Haji Hashim Printing House - 2015).

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

8- From the Memoirs of the Martyr Commander Haso Mirxan Zhazhoki, 62 Days with Barzani: The Departure of the Barzanis to the Soviet Union, First Edition, (Erbil - Rewshanbiri Printing House - 1997).

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

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

11- Najaf Quli Pessian, From Bloody Mahabad to the Shores of the Aras, trans. Shawkat Sheikh Yazdin, First Edition, (Pirmam - Golden Jubilee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - 1996).

12- Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.