Head Of House Of Osman Dies At 90 In Damascus - Reports

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th January, 2021) The head of the House of Osman, the dynasty that once ruled the Ottoman Empire, has died at the age of 90 in Damascus, Daily Sabah reported on Tuesday, citing his family.

"Father of our family and the Ottoman dynasty, our uncle Prince Dündar Abdülkerim Osmanoğlu passed away in Syria's Damascus. May his soul rest in peace," Orhan Osmanoglu said, as quoted by the newspaper.

He passed away on Monday at a hospital in the Syrian capital.

Osmanoglu, the great-grandson of Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II, was born in 1930 in Damascus.

He was married to Yusra Hanim and was childless. On the instructions of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Osmanoglu was evacuated from war-hit Syria in August 2017 to Beirut and then to Istanbul. Later, he returned to Damascus.

Under a 1924 Turkish law following the ouster of the last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI Vahideddin, he and his relatives were expelled from the country. The Ottoman dynasty's descendants were then scattered around the world, and many of them lived in poverty. They were not allowed to return home until 1974.