Murat Gökhan Bardakçı (born 25 December 1955) is a Turkish journalist working on

Ottoman history The Ottoman Empire was founded c. 1299 by Osman I as a small beylik in northwestern Asia Minor just south of the Byzantine capital Constantinople. The Ottomans first crossed into Europe in 1352, establishing a permanent settlement at Çimpe Cast ...

and

Turkish music The music of Turkey includes mainly Turkic and Byzantine elements as well as partial influences ranging from Ottoman music, Middle Eastern music and Music of Southeastern Europe, as well as references to more modern European and American popula ...

history. He is also a

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...

for ''

Habertürk ''Habertürk'' (literally: "News Turkish"), abbreviated as ''HT'', was a high-circulation Turkish newspaper. It was established on March 1, 2009 by Ciner Media Group, drawing on the brand of Ciner's Habertürk TV. It ceased publication on 5 July ...

'' newspaper.

Biography

Bardakçı was born in 1955 in

İstanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. An

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

by training, he was trained in

Turkish classical music Ottoman music ( tr, Osmanlı müziği) or Turkish classical music ( tr, Türk sanat müziği) is the tradition of classical music originating in the Ottoman Empire. Developed in the palace, major Ottoman cities, and Sufi lodges, it traditionally ...

by some of the most-reputed contemporary masters, in

tambur The ''tambur'' (spelled in keeping with TDK conventions) is a fretted string instrument of Turkey and the former lands of the Ottoman Empire. Like the ney, the armudi (lit. pear-shaped) kemençe and the kudüm, it constitutes one of the fou ...

and singing at first, with his primary interests directed more towards theory and musical history later. He published several researches on musical history (notably the biographies of the composers Abd al-Qadir Maraghi and Refik Fersan) and with the start of a journalistic career in ''

Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is one of the major Turkish newspapers, founded in 1948. , it had the highest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey at around 319,000. ''Hürriyet'' has a mainstream, liberal and conservative outlook. ''Hürriyet ...

'', expanded the scope of his writings on Ottoman and general

Islamic history The history of Islam concerns the political, social, economic, military, and cultural developments of the Islamic civilization. Most historians believe that Islam originated in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE. Muslims r ...

, with marked emphasis on the 19th and the early-20th centuries. Two of his books on the end of the Ottoman dynasty, "Son Osmanlılar" (''The Last Ottomans'') and Şahbaba (literally, ''The Emperor-father''), a biography of Mehmed VI Vahideddin, became

best-seller A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties (novel, nonfiction book, cook ...

s in Turkey, the former also having been carried over to the screen in the form a

TV serial In television and radio programming, a serial is a show that has a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode-by-episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the complete run of ...

. He married Ayşegül Manav in 2009. Since 2008 he has co-hosted the history programme "Tarihin Arka Odası" (''The Backroom of History'') and its successor "Tarihin İzinde" (''On the Track of History'') with

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

Erhan Afyoncu and several others, including Turkish art historian

Nurhan Atasoy Nurhan Atasoy (born February 12, 1934) is a Turkish art historian. She specializes in history of Ottoman and Islamic art. She served as a Chair in the Department of Fine Arts, Archeology and Art History at Istanbul University until 1999 when she ...

, on Haberturk TV. He is able to speak Arabic, French, English and Persian

Talat Pasha's ''Black Book''

Murat Bardakçı is the editor of the ''Black Book'', Ottoman Minister of Interior

Talat Pasha Mehmed Talaat (1 September 187415 March 1921), commonly known as Talaat Pasha or Talat Pasha,; tr, Talat Paşa, links=no was an Ottoman politician and convicted war criminal of the late Ottoman Empire who served as its leader from 1913 t ...

's recording of relocations of Turkish-Muslim and

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

Christian Ottoman citizens in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

conditions. Published by Bardakçı for the first time in 2005, they were handed over to him by Talat Pasha's widow, Hayriye Talat Bafralı, along with a batch of other documents comprising letters he had sent her and telegrammes exchanged between

Committee of Union and Progress The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) ( ota, اتحاد و ترقى جمعيتی, translit=İttihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti, script=Arab), later the Union and Progress Party ( ota, اتحاد و ترقى فرقه‌سی, translit=İttihad ve Tera ...

members. In April 2006, Bardakçı re-edited the black book in full, adding parts that were missing in the first publication. The 1915-1916 resettlements cited in Talat Pasha Black Book of 702,905 Turks from regions under threat of occupation by

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n forces and of 924,158 Armenians in accordance with 27 May 1915

Tehcir Law The Temporary Law of Deportation, also known as the Tehcir Law (; from ''tehcir'', an Ottoman Turkish word meaning "deportation" or "forced displacement" as defined by the Turkish Language Institute), or, officially by the Republic of Turkey, the ...

Criticism of Wikipedia and disputes

Bardakçı's view of

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

and arguments in his columns and programs lead to some disputes in Turkish media. Besides this, he is critical of the accuracy of

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

. Giving the example of his own biography on Wikipedia having falsely put forward that he had four children, and emphasizing the negative implications of such an accessible source upon students' academic performance in the form of

plagiarism Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...

, he declared that the Turkish version of Wikipedia should be banned in Turkey. On the other hand, although he emphasises that he is not a historian, his works mainly contain historical documents and its interpretations and yet he can be qualified as being close to the English school of history writing in the context of

historical method Historical method is the collection of techniques and guidelines that historians use to research and write histories of the past. Secondary sources, primary sources and material evidence such as that derived from archaeology may all be drawn ...

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

but this side of his works usually finds no reference in his books.

Bibliography

*'' Abd al-Qadir Maraghi'', Pan Publishing, 1986, . *''The Last Ottomans & The Deportation and Heritage of Ottoman Dynasty'', Pan Publishing - İnkılâp Bookstore, 1991, . *''Royal Compositions (The Works of Last Sultan of the Ottomans, Mehmet Vahideddin VI)'', Pan Publishing, 1997, . *''Turkish Songs for Fener Rulers'', Pan Publishing, 1993, . *''Sex in Ottomans'', Gür Publishing - İnkılâp Bookstore, 1993, . *''Mr. Refik (Refik Fersan and His Memories)'', Pan Publishing, 1995, . *''Şahbaba: The Life, Memories and Private Letters of Last Sultan of the Ottomans,

Mehmed VI Vahdeddin Mehmed VI Vahideddin ( ota, محمد سادس ''Meḥmed-i sâdis'' or ''Vaḥîdü'd-Dîn''; tr, VI. Mehmed or /; 14 January 1861 – 16 May 1926), also known as Şahbaba () among the Osmanoğlu family, was the 36th and last Sultan of the O ...

'', Pan Publishing - İnkılâp Bookstore, 1998, . *''The Abandoned Documents of Talât Pasha'', Everest Publishing, 2009, . * ''Neslişah: Cumhuriyet Devrinde Bir Osmanlı Prensesi'', Everest Publishing, 2011, . * ''Ahmed Oğlu Şükrullah: Şükrullah'ın Risalesi ve 15. Yüzyıl Şark Musikisi Nazariyatı'', İstanbul, 2012, . * ''Üçüncü Selim Devrine Ait Bir Bostancıbaşı Defteri'', Pan Publishing, 2013, . * ''İttihadçı'nın Sandığı'', İş Bankası Kültür Publishing, 2014, . * ''Mahmut Şevket Paşa'nın Sadaret Günlüğü'', İş Bankası Kültür Publishing, 2014, . * ''Enver'', İş Bankası Kültür Publishing, 2015, .

Footnotes

External links

Archive of articles by Murat Bardakçı in the newspaper ''Sabah''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bardakci, Murat Turkish journalists Turkish columnists 20th-century Turkish historians Writers from Istanbul 1955 births Living people 21st-century Turkish historians Historians of World War I Turkish people of Crimean Tatar descent Turkish people of Circassian descent Critics of Wikipedia Habertürk people Turkish television talk show hosts