He was born on May 21st, 1947 in a refugee camp in Bregenz, Austria where his parents, Crimean Tatars, had fled to avoid Joseph Stalin's persecution. His family immigrated to Turkey when he was 2 years old. Ortayli is maternally a descendant of Crimean TatarMirza nobility. He grew up trilingual, learning German from his father and Russian from his mother. As a polyglot historian he is proficient in Italian, English, French, Persian, Ottoman Turkish and Latin. His published articles are mainly in Turkish, German and French and a variety of them are translated into English. During his studies in Turkey, he worked as a travel guide, which, according to him, influenced his approach to history. It cultivated his apprehension in practice and gave him an opportunity "to teach history" to different groups of people with various backgrounds. He credits his experiences as a travel guide in his writing of "popular history" books and essays. He made acquaintance with intellectuals from both Turkey and other countries. Notable are Halil İnalcık, Murat Bardakçı, Irene Melikoff, Bernard Lewis, Andreas Tietze. His biography Zaman Kaybolmaz: İlber Ortaylı Kitabı was published in 2006. The book includes a long journalistic conversation with Nilgün Uysal, passages from his childhood, student years in Ankara, Vienna and Chicago, his recent reflections on near history events and anecdotes from the years he when he worked as a travel guide all over Turkey.
Criticism on Turkish intellectual and political figures
Among his interviews on TV, newspapers; Ortaylı's critical discourse on Turkish intellectual and political figures became emblematically popular among public even as entertaining internet meme shared on social media such as humiliating notes written under his photograph as depiction of a superiour personality reacting to the ignorant others. But his criticisms shouldn't be confused with anti-intellectualism. Yet criticism of Turkish intellectuals is an old and an ongoing debate in Turkey and İlber Ortaylı may be put separate from other figures of Turkish media those who shape the public opinion as journalist commentators. He is one of very few to bring historical context -in respect to every subject in its own variety- to debates on contemporary social issues and debates so that his thoughts and opinions bring attention and his knowledge is praised widely among public.
Works
Ortaylı published numerous articles focused on diplomacy, cultural history and intellectual history. Some examples are:
Ottoman History
Russian history
Ottoman-Habsburg Relations
German Influence in the 19th century Ottoman Empire
He also published articles on urban history like Latins of the Pera district of the Constantinople for Istanbul and various historical cities which were once under the Ottoman influence; history of provincial administration focusing on the transformation of institutions in the Ottoman Empire from the beginning to the 19th century.
Awards
In 2001, he received the Aydın Doğan Foundation Award for his work "Family in the Ottoman History". In 2007, he received the Medal of Pushkin for his "great contribution to the spread and study of the Russian language, the preservation of cultural heritage and the rapprochement and mutual enrichment of different nations’ and people's cultures" under a decree signed by Vladimir Putin and announced officially by the Kremlin, the ceremony took place at the Russian Consulate in Istanbul. In 2011, he was chosen as honorary member to the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
