Qaladiza

Qalladze
قەڵادزێ
Pshder / پشدەر
Qalladze

Location within Iraq

Coordinates: 36°11′00″N 45°07′40″E / 36.18333°N 45.12778°E / 36.18333; 45.12778Coordinates: 36°11′00″N 45°07′40″E / 36.18333°N 45.12778°E / 36.18333; 45.12778
Country  Iraq
Autonomous region  Kurdistan
Governorate Sulaymaniyah
District Pshdar District
Elevation 2,895 ft (882 m)
Population (2009)
 • Total 140,836
  the population is for the whole Pshder
Time zone UTC+3
Postal code 46016
Area code(s) +964
language Kurdish
Website www.qaladze.info.com

Qalladze or Qeladizê is a City of 140,000 inhabitants in the Kurdistan Regional Government region in Iraqi Kurdistan, north of Sulaymaniyah, near the Iranian border. Qalladze means "Castle of Two Rivers" from the Kurdish words Qala= castle, dw= two and ze= river. In the south west of the City there is a small hill between two rivers.

It is surrounded by mountains like many parts of Kurdistan. The town is located in a middle of "Peshdar". The whole town was devastated during the Iraq and Iran War and all residents were relocated to Bazian and other parts of Iraqi Kurdistan, but most of them in Bazzian, a small town located west of Sulimanyah. The people of Qalladze stayed there until the Kurdish uprising against Saddam Hussein's regime in 1991. Then they came back to their land. The town has continued to expand. A branch of the Sulaimania University was established there in 1974, but Iraqi government attacked it in April 24, 1974.

At 9.15am on Wednesday 24 April 1974, Qalladze fell victim to Saddam Hussein first airstrike against the Kurds. It was rumoured that the town attracted the eye of Saddam Hussein because the University of Slemani* had temporarily relocated to Qalladze on the 1st April 1974 – under the command of leader Mustafa Barzani who led the Kurdish revolution. More than 425 students and teachers re-located to Qalladze as a show of solidarity to Mustafa Barzani’s decision which angered the Ba’athi government. Bomber planes, rockets and internationally prohibited cannon fires set alight the town of Qalladze, the Ba’athist government had demolished the town of Qalladze and although we will never know an exact figure of fallen victims, it is said that more than 132 children and students alone were killed during the attacks, with over 400 Kurds injured or missing. Two days after the Iraqi government’s first airstrike on the Kurds, attentions were turned to the town of Halabja – the second victim of Saddam Hussein’s airstrikes.

on the 10th February 2013, the council ministers of the Kurdish Regional Government elected the 24th April as the University Martyrs Day; a homage to the fallen martyrs of Sulaymaniyah University (now known as Salahaddin University)


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