Last surviving member of Turkeys Othman dynasty dies at 97
Latheef Farook
The last surviving member of Turkeys Othman dynasty, Ertugrul Osman
Osmanoglu, died at the age of 97 at a private hospital in Istanbul on
Wednesday, September 23.
He was laid to rest on Friday September 25 in the Istanbul garden of
the tomb of his grandfather Sultan Mahmud II. The emotional religious
ceremony was attended by hundreds of thousands of people from all over
Turkey who still revere the Othman dynasty and proud of its great
contributions.
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Ertugrul Osman Osmanoglu: Died at the age of 97 at a private
hospital in Istanbul |
It is strange coincidence that Othman dynasty began with Ertugrul,
father of Osman who established the Othman Empire, ended with Ertugrul
though both did not rule the country. During its more than 600 year
rule the Othman Empire ruled sizable part of Europe, Middle East and
North Africa. He would have become Turkeys ruler. However, Jews and
Britain, in collaboration with the Arab rulers, toppled Othman regime in
1923, abolished caliphate, installed a military dictatorship extremely
hostile to Islam and sent his family members in exile to Europe.
Osmanoglu was born in 1912 at Yildiz Palace in Istanbul when the
Ottoman Empire was in power. He left to Geneva for education when he was
ten years old and he was there when Othman rulers were overthrown. Thus
he could not return to Turkey for the next 70 years.
In 1933, young Osmanogul moved to New York City where he involved in
mining business. He married Gulda Twerskoy who died in 1985. In 1991, he
married Zeynep Tarzi, daughter of Prince Abdulfettah Tarzi, niece of
former king of Afghanistan Amanullah Khan and of Doctor Pakize Tarzi, a
Turkish gynecologist. As the last surviving grandson of an Ottoman
ruler, he was also the head of the living members of the Othman dynasty
since 1994.
In the latter part of his life both Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan and President Abdullah Gl showed interest in and visited him in
the US in 2004. He was pleased with the authorities interest and
respect for him because of his Ottoman roots. In 1992, he returned to
Turkey for the first time in 53 years on the invitation of the then
Turkish Prime Minister and was granted a Turkish passport and
citizenship in 2004.
He loved his country and once said that the day he received a
Turkish passport was the happiest day of his life. I was in Venezuela
when we were granted amnesty. Turkish ambassador sent me the news:
Apply if you want to be a citizen. We can give you passport or visa if
you want.
If you have American passport, let us give you visa, you can go to
Turkey then. I thanked his offer and said, We do not need amnesty
since we have not done anything wrong. In 2004, he got his Turkish
citizenship. |
