{"id":21319,"date":"2012-07-09T10:58:10","date_gmt":"2012-07-09T07:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=21319"},"modified":"2012-07-09T10:58:10","modified_gmt":"2012-07-09T07:58:10","slug":"former-head-of-topkapi-palace-istanbul-i-was-fed-up-with-turkish-culture-ministry-21319","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/former-head-of-topkapi-palace-istanbul-i-was-fed-up-with-turkish-culture-ministry-21319\/","title":{"rendered":"Former head of Topkap\u0131 Palace Istanbul: I was fed up with Turkish culture ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Topkap\u0131
Topkap\u0131 Palace Museum Director Yusuf Benli tried to remove the throne of Sultan Selim III into his own residence<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the top touristic attractions in Istanbul, the magnificent Topkap\u0131 Palace has seen major scandals since AKP administration controls the management of the palace of Ottoman Empire. Newly retired head of the palace admits he was fed up with the culture ministry.<\/h1>\n

Istanbul \/ NationalTurk – Turhish daily Radikal ‘s \u00d6mer Erbil talked with the former head of Topkap\u0131 Palace management and history professor who says he has seen enough scandals at the palace after its management is performed by AKP mentality.<\/p>\n

History Professor \u0130lber Ortayl\u0131 was the head of Topkap\u0131 Palace before the Turkish Culture Ministry announced his retirement.\u00a0He has revealed the real reason behind his resignation. ‘ I got fed up with the culture ministry, and they were equally sick of me.’<\/p>\n

Ortayl\u0131 was the head of Topkap\u0131 Palace for seven years, before the Culture Ministry announced his was leaving the post due to his age, a reason Ortayl\u0131 does not find convincing.<\/p>\n

The Topkap\u0131 Palace Museum has seen major scandals over the last year<\/h2>\n

The throne of Ottoman Sultan Selim III was removed from the Topkap\u0131 Palace Museum\u2019s Harem section and haphazardly carried off to museum director Yusuf Benli\u2019s personal residence. The throne was also allegedly kept waiting in the rain in front of Benli\u2019s main entrance, since it did not fit through his doorway. Two employees have been reassigned to other historical museums in connection with this scandal.<\/p>\n

Yusuf Benli also stands accused of serving his visitors breakfast on historic pieces, including a Louis XIV-style marble table decorated with paintings. Further allegations have arisen during the investigation of charges, accusing Benli of corruption, unlicensed excavations on museum grounds, discrimination among the museum\u2019s experts and keeping historical objects that are registered in the museum\u2019s records in his personal residence and a being a yokel above all. Benli has since resigned from his spot.<\/p>\n

Topkapi Palace in Istanbul : Place of scandals and mismanagement<\/h3>\n

Ortayl\u0131 said the scandals signaled mismanagement and that was chiefly because of the two-headed status of the palace. \u0130lber Ortayl\u0131\u2019s title is the Head of Topkap\u0131 Palace Museum, which is more like a symbolic position as the real administrator is the Museum Director assigned by Turkish Culture Ministry.<\/p>\n

Yusuf Benli previously referred to the situation in an interview, stating: ‘ If Ortayl\u0131 said we should buy Turkish delights to present as treats to official visitors and I said we should give sugar candy, we will give sugar candy.’<\/p>\n

Ortayl\u0131 add that the throne scandal was a kind of ‘ sugar candy ‘ issue, apart from the fact that he had no idea about what was going on.<\/p>\n

‘ The museum directory also held an exhibition at Topkap\u0131 Palace without asking me, which included the sale of the exhibited items. Topkap\u0131 is a museum and you cannot do this in a museum.’<\/p>\n

\u0130lber Ortayl\u0131 also mentioned Topkap\u0131 Palace had served as a school for him. ‘ For historians objects are of secondary importance. We prioritize documents over objects. However, objects are also important; and I acquired this knowledge during my post at the Topkap\u0131 Palace Museum. I visited foreign museums with this notion in mind. In short, Topkap\u0131 Palace taught me to work on history with a focus on the ephemera,’ he stated.<\/p>\nError, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 9)<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the top touristic attractions in Istanbul, the magnificent Topkap\u0131 Palace has seen major scandals since AKP administration controls the management of the palace of Ottoman Empire. Newly retired head of the palace admits he was fed up with the culture ministry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":562,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,63,118,117,172,174,194,173,14],"tags":[16089,27495,27497,27499,3314,19241,27494,27500,27498,27496],"class_list":["post-21319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-hot","category-travel","category-turkey-choice","category-turkey-daily","category-turkey-general","category-turkey-headlines","category-world","tag-akp-turkey","tag-ilber-ortayli","tag-ilber-ortayli-topkapi-palace","tag-istanbul-topkapi-palace","tag-topkapi-palace","tag-topkapi-palace-istanbul","tag-topkapi-palace-items","tag-topkapi-palace-management","tag-topkapi-palace-scandal","tag-yusuf-benli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/562"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}