ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Renowned Kurdish academic, scientist and intellectual Nadir Nadirov died in a Kazakhstan hospital on Tuesday at the age of 89, according to his family.
“Unfortunately, I lost my father today,” tweeted his daughter-in-law Narin Nadirov.
Born in Van province, southeast Turkey in 1932, Nadirov lost his father when he was only five. Later, his family fled oppression from the Turkish government, moving to the Caucasus. They were then forcibly displaced by the former Soviet Union to what is now Kazakhstan.
“I was five when the police came and informed us that they would displace us within 24 hours without telling us where,” the scholar said in a Rudaw documentary produced in 2013.
Nadirov soon became a famous figure in Kazakhstan, collecting the country’s Kurdish minority under Barbang association - which “made a significant contribution to strengthening of social and interethnic harmony in the country,” according to Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s first president.
Nadirov “dedicated his life to the development of oil science and engineering,” Nazarbayev added in his tribute.
The scientist was also a permanent member of the prestigious National Academy of Science in Kazakhstan, having received numerous national and international prizes, including the honorary epithet of “Marshal of Science” from a renowned French organization.
A fierce supporter of Kurdish independence, Nadirov’s passing has also been mourned by Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani and PM Masrour Barzani.
His death comes days after another Kurdish figure in Kazakhstan, Knyaz Ibrahim Mirzoyev, passed away.
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