The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has destroyed parts of the protected Shaho Mountain range in the Kermanshah Province by building roads and attempting to establish military bases, local residents and activists say.
Residents of the village of Shamshir in Paveh, Kermanshah Province, told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) that last week the IRGC sent a convoy of construction equipment and began building roads in the Zawaliy Gawra and Zawaliy Bichouk (Big and Small Zawali) mountain ranges.
In addition to building roads, the IRGC is also constructing military bases and helicopter landing pads in two separate locations, further damaging the Shaho Mountains, the residents added.
The IRGC is also reported to have damaged parts of the Piyaz Doul area of the Shaho range to create additional access routes.
The Shaho and Kusalan protected areas, covering 57,236 hectares, are situated between the cities of Sarvabad, Ravansar, Paveh, Marivan, and Kamyaran, bordering Iraqi Kurdistan.
In 2009, Resolution No. 303 of the Supreme Environmental Council (Government Infrastructure Commission) designated these mountainous areas as protected areas under the management of the Ministry of Environment.
Since 2007, the IRGC Nabi Akram forces in Kermanshah and the Beyt al-Moghaddas forces in Kurdistan Province have built several military bases and observation posts in the Shaho protected area, under the pretext of combating the presence of Kurdish opposition forces.
The construction of roads to access these military bases has led to extensive destruction of the protected area.
Despite protests from environmental activists and residents of nearby villages, the construction of roads and military bases in the region continues, and the IRGC has also conducted several military exercises in the area in recent years.
KHRN has previously published several reports detailing the destruction and fires in the Shaho Mountains during these exercises.
On 7 October 2018, Mohammad Hossein Rajabi, then-commander of the IRGC in Kurdistan, responded to criticism of the Moharram military exercises in the Shaho protected area, telling state media: “The enemy is worried about the strength of the IRGC and is creating controversy over the Moharram security drills to vent its frustration.”
He also described the reactions of environmental activists as “media hype by hostile outlets”, saying: “The area chosen for the Moharram security drills in Kamyaran (Shaho area) has no vegetation – only rocks and cliffs. The timing of the exercise was planned to ensure that no one from the local community would be in the vicinity and I can confidently say that the exercise caused no harm to the environment. These allegations are malicious and unfounded.”
In recent years, the IRGC has also regularly shelled the Shaho protected area in the spring and autumn, prohibiting public access to the mountains during these periods.
