Murat Bardakçı

Murat Bardakçı — Biography

Murat Bardakçı, by his own account of half-Circassian, half-Crimean-Tatar descent, was born in Istanbul as the only child of journalist İlhan Bardakçı and Nemika Bağ; his grandfather Cemal Bardakçı had been a provincial governor and War of Independence veteran. He studied economics at Ankara University but his real interest turned to history; he trained on the tambur under Selahattin Tanur and studied music theory and Ottoman source methodology with Ekrem Karadeniz, Fahire Fersan and Abdülbaki Gölpınarlı. He speaks five languages, including Arabic, Persian, French and English, and built up a large archive of manuscripts, prints and musical notation.

In 2005 he revealed, in a series of articles in Hürriyet, the private papers of Grand Vizier Talat Pasha that he had obtained from the pasha's widow, and in 2008 he published them as the book Talât Paşa'nın Evrak-ı Metrukesi; it contains the official Ottoman figures for the Armenian population deported in 1915–16 alongside figures for Turks relocated from areas under threat of Russian occupation. Bardakçı argued that the documents did not support the charge of genocide, a view that drew criticism. From 2009 to 2015 he co-hosted the history programme Tarihin Arka Odası on Habertürk TV with Erhan Afyoncu, Pelin Batu and later Nurhan Atasoy, and in 2009 he married Ayşegül Manav, his partner of five years.

Following the 2018 election, President Erdoğan appointed him to the Presidential Board of Culture and Arts Policies alongside figures such as Orhan Gencebay and Hülya Koçyiğit. Still writing his Habertürk column, he published a 2026 book on musician Şerif Muhiddin Targan and wrote a widely noted farewell tribute after the death of his longtime friend, historian İlber Ortaylı.