Hayko Bağdat (* 1976 in Istanbul) is a Turkish-Armenian journalist, author and cabaret artist. He attended the Esayan School of Basic Education and the Mıhitaryan Secundary School. He then studied literature and history at Istanbul University. His journalistic career began in 2002 with the radio program Sözde Kalanlar on Yaşam Radyo, which dealt with minority issues in Turkey. He was the first Armenian radio presenter to report on Armenians in Turkey. From 2003, he wrote columns for the Armenian newspaper Marmara and later for the daily newspaper Taraf and the online portal Diken.
Hayko Bağdat began performing his stand-up program Salyangoz (Snail) at the BKM Mutfak Sahne in Istanbul in March 2015. In this program, he humorously addresses life as a member of a Christian minority in a predominantly Muslim society. Hayko Bağdat has also published several books that deal with his personal experiences and social issues. His works include The Snail (2014), Gollik (2015), The Kurtuluş Neighborhood is All Too Rotten (2016), Haykology (2016), Being an Armenian (2023) and Was There a Dead Man in Your House Last Night? (2024).
Following the attempted coup in Turkey in 2016, numerous critical media outlets for which Bağdat had worked were banned or closed. In addition, Erdoğan's government issued numerous arrest warrants for Hayko Bağdat and he received death threats. When the book publisher İnkılap Yayınevi was also unable to publish any more of his books, he was unable to work in his home country and moved to Berlin.
After his political exile, Bağdat continued to perform Salyangoz internationally. He performed in cities such as New York, San Francisco, Montreal, Toronto, Paris, London, Vienna, Berlin, Amsterdam, Basel, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Cologne, Hamburg, Innsbruck, Bielefeld and Dortmund. In total, he has performed Salyangoz over 100 times, reaching tens of thousands of spectators. The performances took place both in Turkish and with simultaneous translation in order to appeal to a wider audience. In Berlin, for example, the program was presented at the Maxim Gorki Studio. However, he also received death threats again in Berlin and has been under police protection ever since.
