Paveh is the southernmost Kurdish city in Iran, located thirty kilometers from the Iraqi border. After the Qasr-e Shirin– Khaneqin route, it is the most important road connecting Iran and Iraq.

Paveh is a Hawrami word — one of the Kurdish dialects — meaning tall, elevated, and standing on its own feet.⁠[1] In Dehkhoda’ s dictionary, the word is defined as washing and cleansing.⁠[2] The people of Paveh are of Aryan descent and speak Kurdish. Until the late 1950s, Paveh was part of Kurdistan Province, but today it belongs to Kermanshah Province.⁠[3] A road runs from northern Kermanshah, along the border with Kurdistan, toward Iraq, with Paveh at its end. Most of the Paveh and Avroman regions are mountainous, with small plains scattered between the peaks.⁠[4] Paveh County covers 860 square kilometers and contains four cities: Paveh, Nowsud, Nowdesheh, and Bayengan. The county also has three districts (Central, Bayengan, and Nowsud), five rural districts (Sirvan, Banureh, Shamshir, Shivehsar, and Howli), and 73 villages. Paveh borders Marivan, Kamyaran, and Sanandaj to the north; Ravansar and Javanrud to the east; Dalahu and Sar-Pol-e Zahab to the south; and the Iran-Iraq border to the west.⁠[5]

On October 30, 1978, SAVAK attacked a gathering of 3,000 people at a mosque in Paveh. From October 30 to November 5, 1979, Paveh was besieged by the armed men of Salarjaf. Salarjaf and his brother were Iraqis who had fled to Iran after Abd al-Karim Qasim’ s coup and risen to positions of power there. In July 1979, insurgents committed another atrocity by massacring local Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members in Marivan. Once again, the central government turned to negotiations, meeting with the perpetrators of the Marivan crisis and agreeing to their demands — yet the separatists continued to push Paveh toward collapse through sustained unrest. Forces of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan laid siege to Paveh on August 17, 1979.⁠[6]

Dr. Chamran, the central government’ s representative who had come to Paveh seeking a peaceful resolution, found no path to negotiation. In this situation, Imam Khomeini (ra) issued a message on the afternoon of Friday, August 17, 1979, from Qom: “ The mistake that we made was that we did not act in a revolutionary manner and gave respite to these corrupt strata; and the revolutionary government, and the revolutionary armed forces and the revolutionary IRGC— none of them acted in a revolutionary manner and were not revolutionary. These plotters in Kurdistan and other places are in the same league as the disbelievers; they should be dealt with severely. I shall come to Tehran and act revolutionarily with those that show leniency to them”.

This message significantly weakened the separatists’ influence and power, and despite holding key positions in the city, their ability to resist diminished, leading to the liberation of Paveh from anti‑revolutionary forces on August 18, 1979.⁠[7] On December 14, 1979, after the situation in Paveh had been brought under control, talks with the separatists resumed. A delegation led by Dariush Foroohar and including Ezzatollah Sahabi and Hashem Sabbaghian was formed to call for a general amnesty for insurgent individuals and groups. With Imam Khomeini’ s approval, a general amnesty was declared. The insurgent groups treated the amnesty as a victory for themselves, and instability quickly returned.

From February to August 1980, IRGC forces in Paveh, supported by local volunteers, cleared a large area of the central district and restored security along the vital Kermanshah– Paveh– Nowsud Road — though the border areas and northern parts of the central district remained under separatist control.⁠[8]

On May 31, 1980, western Paveh came under attack. Following this joint assault by anti-revolutionary elements and the Iraqi army, IRGC units from Paveh and Army units moved toward Bayengan and pushed the enemy back.⁠[9]

When Iraq invaded Iran on September 22, 1980, it had specific objectives for the Avroman and Paveh regions, but deployed fewer forces there accordingly. Securing the northern front from Oshnavieh to Nowsud was left entirely to Iraq’ s First Corps, which concentrated most of its strength on the southern and central fronts. On September 22, 1980, the revolutionary units in Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan, and the northern parts of Kermanshah — including Paveh and Nowsud — found themselves engaged with anti-revolutionary groups backed by the Iraqi army.

Operation Muhammad Rasulullah (pbuh) was carried out on January 2– 3, 1982, with six battalions of friendly forces — including the Paveh IRGC under Hajj Muhammad Ibrahim Hemmat and the Marivan IRGC under Hajj Ahmad Motavasselian, each contributing two battalions, along with the 3rd Brigade of the 28th Division of Kurdistan and the 84th Brigade of Khorramabad. The objective was to liberate Nowsud and Tavileh in Iraq and secure Byara. The people of Paveh County helped push the anti-revolutionary forces out of their towns and villages, but in the meantime, the Iraqi army — while providing artillery support to the anti-revolutionaries — occupied the border areas of Nowsud district all the way into the depths of the Shushami Heights. As a result, Iranian forces that had pursued the anti-revolutionaries to the point where they merged with the Iraqi army found themselves facing Iraqi troops directly and fought to retake the occupied areas.

To achieve the operation’ s objectives, the border heights of Shushami and Dalani had to be secured, and the infiltration routes used by anti-revolutionary elements had to be closed. Two axes — Paveh and Marivan — were planned for the operation, but since objectives on other axes were not met, the Marivan axis fell short of its goals as well. On the Paveh axis, along the Sooni Heights, the operation began through the Dezli pass, but Iranians ran into anti-revolutionary forces while passing through Nowsud. In that engagement, they captured the heights overlooking the city, but failed to reach the main objective — the Sooni Heights. The Paveh axis, therefore, also fell short of its targets. Furthermore, the forces on the Paveh and Marivan axes were unable to link up with each other, leaving Iranian positions quite vulnerable despite successes such as the capture of Tavileh township.⁠[10]

By 1982, Paveh had been fully cleared.⁠[11] Nasser Kazemi, the governor of Paveh, was martyred in August 1982 on the Piranshahr– Sardasht Road.⁠[12] In 1983, an operation was organized to clear the areas between Kamyaran, Marivan, Kermanshah, and Paveh. Most of the fighting during these years involved attacking Iraqi and anti‑revolutionary positions.⁠[13]

Before Operation Valfajr 10 began on March 14, 1988, the General-Governorates of Kurdistan and Kermanshah were tasked with preparing camps to potentially receive displaced people from Halabja. Since Paveh was the closest city to the operational area, it became host to a number of Iraqi Kurds in the aftermath of Valfajr 10.⁠[14]

In 1988, after Iran accepted UN Resolution 598, Iraq once again invaded Iran from the Shalamcheh border. In the Paveh area as well, the population was placed on alert to stop the Munafiqeen forces from moving forward.⁠[15]

Paveh and Avroman had officially entered a state of conflict on August 9, 1979, with the outbreak of fighting in Kurdistan. On September 21, 1980, with Iraq’ s attack, the region joined the main war, and until the resolution was accepted in 1988, it experienced nearly a decade of continuous conflict.⁠[16]

In 1996, on the anniversary of the Paveh epic, Sayyad Shirazi (martyred) visited the city and inaugurated a memorial to Paveh’ s resistance beside the local hospital.⁠[17] A number of significant artistic works have been produced on the subject of Paveh over the years, among the most notable being the film “ Che”, directed by Ebrahim Hatamikia, which depicts the siege of Paveh and the role of Dr. Chamran (martyred) in the city.