Why are the Turks so hot about the former Ottoman Empire?
Turks paid their final respects on Saturday to the most senior member of the former Ottoman dynasty at his funeral in Istanbul, which ministers attended in a sign of official recognition for the former exile. Hundreds of mourners filled the courtyard of the Blue Mosque in the historic center of Turkey’s largest city and lined up before the coffin, draped in a Turkish flag, of Osman Ertugrul Osmanoglu. Three ministers attended the funeral of Osmanoglu, whose grandfather Abdulhamit II was the last Ottoman sultan to rule with absolute power. Osmanoglu, dubbed the “last Ottoman” by the Turkish media, died in an Istanbul hospital of kidney failure on Wednesday at the age of 97. Reverence for the former Ottoman Empire has grown in recent years under the rule of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, whose Islamist-rooted government came to power in 2002 and granted Osmanoglu Turkish citizenship in 2004. Abdulhamit II was the 34th Ottoman sultan and ruled during the decline of the Ottoman Empire unti
STANBUL (Reuters) – Turks paid their final respects on Saturday to the most senior member of the former Ottoman dynasty at his funeral in Istanbul, which ministers attended in a sign of official recognition for the former exile. Hundreds of mourners filled the courtyard of the Blue Mosque in the historic center of Turkey’s largest city and lined up before the coffin, draped in a Turkish flag, of Osman Ertugrul Osmanoglu. Three ministers attended the funeral of Osmanoglu, whose grandfather Abdulhamit II was the last Ottoman sultan to rule with absolute power. Sources: http://www.reuters.
