ASTANA, Kazakhstan– After a life dedicated to science, and living through the turmoil that followed the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakh-Kurd Nadir Karim Nadirov has a single dream: seeing the creation of an independent Kurdistan.
“Of course, my biggest dream is to see an independent Kurdistan one day, and I know that day will eventually come,” said Nadirov, whose origins lie in the Kurdish city of Van in Northern Kurdistan (Bakur). That is where all of his ancestors are buried.
“It is really painful that I have not been able to pay a visit to their graves,” he said in an interview with Rudaw.
Nadirov, a scholar and professor of oil and gas studies who has worked for the past decade on clean energy and innovative methods of growing food, wants to bring some of that knowledge to the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq.
“In 2011, I made two inventions that can very easily be used in Kurdistan,” said the octogenarian, who has twice been to Kurdistan to discuss his inventions. One of his methods of growing food, he explained, would save fuel.
“I visited the Kurdistan Region in 2006. I had a meeting with the Ministry of Natural Resources. We signed a deal and they said that we will cooperate. I even had a meeting with the Salahaddin and Dohuk universities. But so far no one has contacted me. In 2008, I made a second trip to Kurdistan and met with the president. And again I was told to work with them,” he said.
Nadirov, who is called “the father of the science of oil” in Kurdistan, believes that oil will remain a reliable source of fuel for many years to come.
“Some say oil will run out in 50 years, this is not really true. I think oil will remain a reliable source of energy for at least 150 more years,” he said.
Nadirov, a permanent member of the prestigious National Academy of Science in Kazakhstan, has received numerous national and international prizes, including the honorary epithet of “Marshal of Science” from a renowned French organization. He has written more than 950 scientific articles, and has been the editor-in-chief of the Petrol and Gas magazine since 1996.
He finalized his doctoral studies in 1958 in Moscow and, because at that time they were few PhDs in the Soviet Union, he was offered many positions in different parts of the country, he recounts.
“I was a member of the Communist Party and this was like a prison to me,” he said with a smile. “The party decided where I could or could not work.”
He went through the turmoil that followed the end of the Soviet Union, and was sometimes relocated to the most remote areas because of his political sympathies, the scientist explained.
He estimates that there are close to 80,000 Kurds living in Kazakhstan, although he says officially the number is 37,000.
“Every Kurd is concerned about Kurdistan. Most of them (Kurds living in Kazakhstan) have preserved their Kurdish language and heritage. They speak Kurdish at home. Following 2002, more than 7000 Kurds took to the streets and demanded more rights. Our unity here was very much admired by Kazakhs,” said Nadirov.
“There are many Kurds who have been registered as Turks, Azeris and Georgians. And also many of these Kurds have moved recently to Kazakhstan from Armenia and Azerbaijan and have not obtained citizenship in Kazakhstan,” he said, explaining why he believed the official figure for Kazakh Kurds is wrong.
As many Kurdish families do to preserve their identity, Nadirov recalled how his family had wanted him to marry a Kurdish girl.
“And I said ‘alright, but she should be educated.’ Back then, literate Kurdish girls were scarce. And then I met Halima through my uncle. She was already a PhD student. We got married very quickly, in 1961,” Nadirov recounted.
“My wife writes poetry and is a teacher of the Kurdish language. Sometimes she writes poems on Kurdish miseries that make my eyes tearful. She writes of the heroism and bravery of the Kurds. I see her as a gift from God.” he says.
Nadirov, who has three sons and seven grandchildren, has one message for the Kurdish youth: “You should honor the Kurdish name and heritage; you should take pride in having a Kurdish identity.”
