Şehzade Ertuğrul Osman

Template:Short descriptionTemplate:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox royalty Şehzade Ertuğrul Osman Efendi (Template:Langx; 18 August 1912 – 23 September 2009), also known as Osman Ertuğrul Osmanoğlu with a surname as required by the Turkish Republic, was a prince of the Ottoman Empire and the 43rd Head of the Imperial House of Osman from 1994 until his death.

Until the abolition of the monarchy on 1 November 1922, Osman was addressed as His Imperial Highness Şehzade Ertuğrul Osman Efendi Hazretleri, Imperial Prince of the Ottoman Empire.<ref>The style remained available to him thereafter as international protocol dictates that former Monarchs and members of non-abdicated royal families still retain the use of their style and title for the duration of their lifetime, but both die with them. For example, Greece's deposed king is still technically His Majesty King Constantine II of the Hellenes, as a personal title, not a constitutional office, since the abolition of the monarchy by the Hellenic Republic in 1974.</ref> He is known in Turkey as "the last Ottoman".<ref name="bbc obituary"/>

Biography

Şehzade Ertuğrul Osman was born on 18 August 1912 in Istanbul, in Nişantaşı Palace.<ref name="tel27sep">Template:Cite news</ref> He was the second and youngest son of Şehzade Mehmed Burhaneddin (Yıldız Palace, 19 December 1885 – New York City, United States, 15 June 1949, and buried in Damascus). His father served as a Captain of the Ottoman Army. Ertuğrul Osman's mother was Burhaneddin's second consort, Aliye Melek Nazlıyar Hanım (Adapazarı, 13 October 1892 – Ankara, 31 August 1976), daughter of Hüseyin Bey. They married at Nişantaşı, Nişantaşı Palace, Pera (today Beyoğlu) on 7 June 1909 and divorced in 1919. Osman's paternal grandparents were Sultan Abdul Hamid II and Mezidemestan Kadın.

In 1924, while studying in Vienna, Austria, he received news that all members of the Sultan's family were to be exiled.<ref name="bbc obituary"/> He moved to the United States in 1933 and later resided in New York City. He was educated at Sciences Po Paris.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He worked as a consultant for Canadian company Wells Overseas which often sent him to South America.<ref>The Globe and Mail: September 2009: Turkish Prince was an heir without an empire</ref>

Osman lived modestly in Manhattan after 1945, residing in a two-bedroom apartment above a restaurant.<ref name="bbc obituary"/><ref name=nyt>Template:Cite news</ref> He returned to Turkey in 1992, having been invited by the country's government.<ref name="bbc obituary"/> At that time, he observed, "Democracy works well in Turkey."<ref name="bilefsky">Bilefsky, Dan. "Weary of Modern Fictions, Turks Glory in Splendor of Ottoman Past," New York Times. 5 December 2009.</ref> He became the 43rd Head of the Imperial House of Osman in 1994, after the death of Şehzade Mehmed Orhan.

Osman was granted a Turkish passport and citizenship in 2004. He spoke Turkish, English, German and French fluently and understood Italian and Spanish.

Osman died on 23 September 2009 in his sleep from kidney failure, at the age of 97.<ref name="bbc obituary" /><ref name="nyt" /><ref name="Head of the former Ottoman dynasty dies">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref name="zaman obituary" /> He had spent a week in Istanbul's Memorial hospital at the time of his death.<ref name="zaman obituary" /> Osman's funeral was held at the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul on 26 September.<ref name="bilefsky" /> His body was interred next to his grandfather Sultan Abdul Hamid II in Istanbul's Çemberlitaş neighborhood.<ref name="cnnfuneral">Template:Cite news</ref> His coffin was draped with the Imperial Ottoman Standard and his funeral was attended by Turkish government ministers.<ref name="bilefsky" /> Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President Abdullah Gül both sent condolences to the Imperial family. Erdoğan also later visited Osman's widow at a former Imperial Palace to express his condolences.Template:Citation needed

Marriages

He was married twice, first in New York City on 20 January 1947 to Gulda Twerskoy (Johannesburg, South Africa, 20 March 1915 – New York City, 16 September 1985), without issue. His second wife, whom he married on a football pitch, on 27 September 1991, also without issue, Zeynep Tarzi (born 16 December 1940 in Istanbul), is the daughter of Abdulfettah Tarzi, nephew-in-law of King Amanullah Khan of Afghanistan, and of Pakize Tarzi, a pioneering Turkish gynaecologist from a deep-rooted Ottoman family. He remained married to Zeynep until his death.

External links

• Ertugrul Osman – Daily Telegraph obituary