About İlber Ortaylı
İlber Ortaylı (Turkish: [ˈilbæɾ oɾˈtajɫɯ]; 21 May 1947 – 13 March 2026) was a Turkish historian and professor of history of Crimean Tatar origin at the Galatasaray University in Istanbul and at Ankara University and Bilkent University in Ankara. In 2005, he was appointed the director of the Topkapı Museum in Istanbul, until he retired in 2012. Considered one of the most prominent historians in Turkey, Ortaylı has influenced both academic scholarship and public understanding of history through his research, widely read popular history books, and television programs. == Early life and education == Ortaylı was born on 21 May 1947 in a refugee camp in Bregenz, Austria, where his Crimean Tatar parents, Kemal and Şefika (née Karashaysky; 1918–2020), had fled to avoid Joseph Stalin's deportation of the Crimean Tatars. His family immigrated to Turkey when he was two years old. His father worked as an aircraft engineer and participated in some translation projects on Crimean history. His mother, a descendant of Crimean Tatar Mirza nobility, served long years as a lecturer of Russian language and Literature in the Faculty of Language, History and Geography at Ankara University. He had boy-girl twin siblings, Enver and Emeldar, and another sister, Nuriye. He started elementary school at St. George's Austrian High School in İstanbul and later transferred to Ankara Atatürk High School.
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