A former Kurdish Peshmerga fighter, Sobhi al-Agrawi, dubbed Hakim Goran, announced Tuesday afternoon that within hours he would commit suicide live on his Facebook page.
After about three hours, dozens of his friends and followers watched him shoot himself using a Kalashnikov machine gun.
His family members said that the moment he decided to commit suicide, his brother and nephew tried to convince him otherwise, but they did not succeed because he fired over their heads and threatened to kill them if they approached him any further, saying: “I took my decision. I want to die with dignity.”
Goran was rushed to the hospital where he later succumbed to his wounds on Wednesday.
In the 1990s, and after the Kurdish-Kurdish war, Goran immigrated to Europe and obtained Dutch citizenship, while his family still lives there.
After the independence referendum, he returned to Kurdistan hoping it will be successful and a Kurdish state will be declared, but was very shocked after it failed.
Goran then decided to resort to the Dohuk mountains where he lived in seclusion and called for unity and reform among Kurdish parties.
Goran’s father was arrested by the Baath party and National Guard authorities in 1963 and was released after about 9 months. He joined the revolution in the early 1980s, along with his brother, and later served as a judge in the revolutionary courts held against Baath collaborators. It was then that he became known as Hakem Goran.
Kurdish journalist Hafal Zakhoi described the moment he learned about Goran’s death as a "moment of protest after a long history of struggle."
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that his death news saddened everyone in Kurdistan, especially people of his hometown Dohuk. He indicated that no one knows what was going on with him, given that the issue of suicide is very dangerous and controversial and taking such a decision is very difficult.
Zakhoi indicated that on the day he decided to end his life, Goran left his residence in Dohuk, and passed through his town Akre, without visiting his family, and then went to a rugged mountainous area where he committed suicide.
In his last word, Goran blamed the Kurdish people for doing nothing regarding his two-years protest in Dohuk mountains after the failure of the 2017 referendum, said the journalist.
Zakhoi said that Goran was troubled by the referendum’s failure and the fierce conflict of power between the Kurdish parties. He also felt that justice, reform, and equality were not applied in Kurdistan.
