Osman Ertugrul, the head of the Ottoman dynasty and the last pretender to the abolished imperial throne, has died aged 97 following a long illness.
What I most like about him was that Ertugrul had never ever criticized Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who led the republican revolution which deposed his family. In an interview for Al Jazeera television in 2008, Ertugrul had refused to say an unkind word about Ataturk.
He would have been known as Ertugrul I or Osman V if he had ever ascended to the throne of the empire that ruled for more than 600 years.
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I am against any kind of monarchies and I find the concept of dynasties or social classes as the result of a quasi-racist mindset, whether in the UK or in the caste system of India.
At the same time, I am kind of sad for what the last Ottomans experienced after they were sent to exile. They should have been repatriated long ago.
Having only returned to Turkey in the early 1990s at the invitation of the government, Ertugrul was a true gentleman, who went to Dolmabahce - the palace by the Bosphorus where he had played as a child, and opted to join a tourist group in order to avoid any red carpet treatment.
Political opinions and humane feelings are two different things.
Rest in peace.
