‘We don’t demand palaces,’ say Ottoman sultan’s descendants

ISTANBUL – Anadolu Agency

A view from inside Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, a symbolic place for Ottomans, is seen in this file photo.

The descendants of Ottoman sultans, who opened inheritance cases against Turkey in 2010, have said they are not demanding palaces or mansions but rather certain assets. They particularly mentioned assets bought by Sultan Abdülhamit II (1842-1918), but did not specify exactly what these assets were.

“We are not demanding palaces such as Topkapı or Dolmabahçe. But Sultan Abdülhamit took land titles for himself, which was a first in Ottoman history … We’re talking about these assets. These are very huge assets,” said Orhan Osmanoğlu, a direct descendant of Abdülhamit II, who was deposed in 1908.

Osmanoğlu said some of these assets were sold to other people, while some were seized by the National Estate Institution. He also said the law about the nationalization of the royal family’s wealth was adopted in 1924, after the members of the sultanate had been exiled from the country.

The descendents of the Ottoman dynasty opened a case in 2010 to locate all their inheritances, but Osmanoğlu stressed that they would not take “any compensation that might cause Turkey trouble.”