Last surviving member of Turkey’s Othman e dynasty died last week at the age of 97

The last surviving member of Turkey’s Othman dynasty, Ertuğrul Osman Osmanoğlu, died at the age of 97 at a private hospital in Istanbul on Wednesday 23 September.
He was laid to rest on Friday September 25 in the Istanbul garden of the tomb of his grand father 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.

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 it’s more than 600 year rule the Othman Empire ruled sizable part of Europe, Middle East and North Africa.

He would have become Turkey’s 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.

Osmanoğlu was born in 1912 at Yıldız 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 was 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 Erdoğan and President Abdullah Gül 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 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.