Native Americans among those claiming Ottoman sultan’s inheritance

Özge Eğrikar - ISTANBUL

Also known as the Red Sultan, Abdulhamid II ruled the Ottoman Empire with an iron fist from 1876 to 1909.

Several people, including Native Americans, have emerged claiming to be legal inheritors of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II. 

In the most recent case, a U.S. court asked the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul to clarify the identity of the inheritor of Samiye Hatun, a grandson of Abdulhamid II, who had moved to the United States after the Ottoman Empire collapsed and married a Native American there. 

The consulate, as well as Turkey’s State Ottoman Archives, have so far not responded to the request.

Samiye Hatun had married a Native American in the U.S, taking the surname D’appadoca. He died in New York 23 years ago, aged 78.

Six years ago, 32 people in Turkey had sued to prove that they were the heir to the vast fortune of Abdulhamid II.

An expert report prepared for the 12th Civil Courts of Peace in Istanbul concluded at the time that at least 15 of the plaintiffs were first-generation inheritors, but the number rose further with marriages.

Also known as the Red Sultan, Abdulhamid II ruled the Ottoman Empire with an iron fist from 1876 to 1909. He was deposed shortly after the 1908 Young Turk Revolution and died at Beylerbeyi Palace in Istanbul in 1918.