Prof. Dr. İlber Ortaylı has passed away at Koç University Hospital, where he had been receiving treatment for some time. Ortaylı, who died at the age of 79, had been admitted to intensive care and intubated in his final days due to health issues.
Following Ortaylı's death, AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's former speechwriter, Aydın Ünal, made a controversial post on his social media account.
While noting that his path had crossed briefly with Ortaylı in the past, he stated: "Setting aside his human side, he was a bad historian, an official historian, a historian of the status quo. Moreover, he was a wall-like obstacle to the development of young historians. We will remember him for his words, in which he belittled Palestinians and sucked up to Zionism during their most difficult times, even at the cost of contradicting our own history and despite his insolence. We hope that the science of history will now be liberated."
The expressions used by Ünal in his post, such as "insolent," "Zionist sycophant," and "bad historian," sparked reactions.
The full text of Ünal's post is as follows:
"I had brief professional interactions with İlber Ortaylı. Setting aside his human side, he was a bad historian, an official historian, a historian of the status quo. Moreover, he was a wall-like obstacle to the development of young historians. We will remember him for his words, in which he belittled Palestinians and sucked up to Zionism during their most difficult times, even at the cost of contradicting our own history and despite his insolence. We hope that the science of history will now be liberated."
I had brief professional interactions with İlber Ortaylı. Setting aside his human side, he was a bad historian, an official historian, a historian of the status quo. Moreover, he was a wall-like obstacle to the development of young historians. We will remember him for his words, in which he belittled Palestinians and sucked up to Zionism during their most difficult times, even at the cost of contradicting our own history and despite his insolence…
— Aydın Ünal (@_aydinunal) March 13, 2026
News Source: 12punto
