The Ottoman Banker Who Saved the Empire

The Story of Turkey: From Byzantium to the Ottoman Empire to Today — Fexingo History · Sep 23, 2026 · 8m · transcript

In this episode, we turn away from sultans and soldiers to follow the rise of Calouste Gulbenkian, the Armenian-Ottoman oil magnate known as Mr. Five Percent. We trace his journey from a young student in Istanbul during the late nineteenth century to the man who held the balance of power in the room when the British, French, Russians, and Germans were carving up the Middle East after World War I. You will hear how he navigated the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, survived the Turkish War of Independence, and ultimately used his immense wealth to build one of the most significant art…