Ertugrul Osman V

Ertuğrul Osman Osmanoğlu (Constantinople, August 12, 1912 - Manhattan, New York, September 24, 2009) was the head of the Osmanli-Ottoman imperial House, which ruled the Ottoman Empire. from 1281 to 1923, when Turkey became a republic.

Biography

He is the youngest son of Prince Mehmet Burhaneddin and grandson of Abdul Hamid II, sultan from 1876 to 1909. He was the 43rd head of the Osman dynasty. In 1924, while studying in Vienna, Austria, he received news that all members of the sultan's family had been sent into exile. He did not return to his native Turkey until 1992, when the Turkish government agreed to grant him Turkish citizenship. The Turkish state had granted amnesty to his family in 1974. "I thank you for the invitation, but I don't need your amnesty because we didn't do anything wrong", he said then. He declared that he did not want the restoration of the Ottoman Empire, as & # 34; I am a very practical person. Democracy works well in Türkiye". He held fourth in the line of succession in 1923 when Atatürk established the republic in Turkey, but in 1994 he became head of the Ottoman dynasty, of which twenty-four living descendants still remain. He lived in the United States since the 1940s and lived in Manhattan until his death.

In the United States, he directed Wells Overseas for years, a company in charge of mining operations in South America. In 2007 he stated: "I don't have much time left. I would like to stay in Istanbul forever". His death was caused by renal and respiratory failure. His remains rest in the Imperial Mausoleum in Istanbul. He considered himself a citizen of the Ottoman Empire until his death, refusing to have a passport from any other country. He identified himself with a certificate created by his lawyer. But after 9/11 and the tightening of security measures, he accepted a Turkish passport in 2004. Osmanoglu spoke modern and Ottoman Turkish, English, French, German and understood Spanish and Italian. He married Gulda Twersoy in 1947, who died in 1985. In 1987 he met Zeynep Tarzi Hanim at a party, thirty years younger and granddaughter of the last Afghan king, whom he married in 1991, with whom he lived in a two-room house, without elevator, located above a restaurant on Lexington Avenue, Manhattan, along with their twelve dogs.

Predecessor: Mehmed VII Orhan

Head of Osmanli Dynasty 12 March 1994-24 September 2009

Successor: Bayezid Osman