Kurdshop - Many Kurdish uprisings and resistances have been sung by Kurdish singers and artists as lyrics and songs. One of the artists is Mustafa Milan, who effectively talks about the resistance of Mount Agri and one of the Kurdish leaders, Sheikh Zahir.
Mustafa Milan is a Kurdish singer from the Maku region of Urmia province in the East part of Kurdistan.
Mustafa Milan describes this resistance:
“Sheikh Zahir comes from a large family called Sheikh Baba. Sheikh Zahir and his family are originally from Edir. Sheikh Zahir was born in 1896 in the village of Karahacili in Edir. His father's name was Sheikh Amer and his mother's name was Khazal Khanim.
Sheikh Zahir is of the descent of Sayid Taha Nahri, so he attracts the attention of the state authorities in the region because of his personality, wisdom, justice, knowledge and knowing several languages. The languages Sheikh Zahir speaks are Russian, Persian, Kurdish, and Turkish.
In 1924, Sadri Bag, the then governor, appointed Sheikh Zahir as the governor of Pasur town of Diyarbakir. In 1925, he was influenced by the Sheikh Saeed uprising. After a while, Sheikh Zahir, because he was a very talented, loyal, hardworking and patriotic Kurd, came under more and more surveillance by the government. He was eventually removed from office due to complaints from some government supporters.
Sheikh Zahir was in a difficult situation because of confessions that he was involved in arms smuggling, leaving him with no choice but to hide. After he disappeared, Sheikh Zahir is seen in the resistance of Mount Agri.
After that, Sheikh Zahir, along with his brothers, Yousef, Abdul Rahman, Tahir, Habib, Ali and his wife Hade (Amina Khanim), his cousin Abdulbari and his wife Bulbl, and other resistance fighters, Omar Base, Saeed Mam, and Feto from Shamik tribe, Chalkha, Taimur, Jalil and a famous fighter named Darbaz Milani participated in the Agri Resistance, and in 1927, they carried out their first activities.
Sheikh Zahir is one of the resistance fighters who became famous in the newspapers for his activities in Mount Agri and its surroundings from 1927- 1932. Sheikh Zahir participated in many activities and wars with these groups and his family members.
On September 14, 1930, after the defeat of the resistance on Mount Agri, Sheikh Zahir and his soldiers went to Mount Tandurik and continued their activities there for two years in the Tandurik, Ozalp, and Albaki areas of Van province.
After the dissolution of the Agri Republic, Ihsan Nuri Pasha was arrested and sent to Tehran. Sheikh Zahir and his family moved to Iran, which accepted them as refugees and settled in a village called Akhblakh, located on the border of the Chalderan in the East part of Kurdistan.
After a while, Sheikh Zahir and his friends were attacked again by the state, and his brother was arrested and tortured to death in Maku. Sheikh Zahir was forced to move with his family to a village called Krikor in Maku in the East part of Kurdistan. They lived among the Birukan tribe for a while. They are reported again after a while. When Sheikh Zahir was not at home, his wife and children were arrested by Iranian soldiers and taken to a base in a village called Karayakh. Sheikh Zahir and some of his friends attacked the base and rescued his family and during this mission, one of his brothers got martyred. They then settled with their families in Dilaman or Salmas in the East part of Kurdistan.
After living in the city for a while, a general amnesty is said to have been issued in Turkey. Therefore, they went to Chalderan and there they went to a village called Sheikh Silo and returned to the North part of Kurdistan and settled in a village called Sheikh Rom, which is located on the border between the North and East parts of Kurdistan.
There, some people tell Sheikh Zahir that this amnesty is not for people like him, it is for others. They will kill you and you must leave. Sheikh Zahir was forced to leave, but because some people reported him, they were ambushed by two Turkish units on a mountain called Ziarati Zhili between the villages of Pachokhli, Sheikh Rom, and Qaiseran. They fought for several hours and crossed the border again around Lake Navor, a difficult place, and visited the village of Navor, which was surrounded by a castle in those days.
There have been many wars there and in the Buk u Zawa Mountain, which is located on the Dabur Mountain on the border between North and East parts of Kurdistan, Sheikh Zahir was wounded in the fighting and passed away three days later.
Before he was martyred, Sheikh Zahir said that if he was killed, he should be buried where he fought. Therefore, Sheikh Zahir is buried in Navor. (Navor village is located on the right side of the border between the North and East parts of Kurdistan and belongs to Chaldiran in East Kurdistan).
According to the narratives, there are three graves in the place, one of which is the grave of Sheikh Zahir, but the other two are unknown whether they are his friends or are excavated and empty. Because at that time the state says that whoever brings us the head of Sheikh Zahir, we will give him a barrel of gold. Therefore, they dug three graves in the shrine so that no one would touch Sheikh Zahir's body.
The Navor shrine is also known as Sheikh Zahir. This shrine is located around Lake Navor. After this incident, many singers and artists sang about the Agri uprising and Sheikh Zahir's resistance.
