Ertugrul Osman Osmanoglu, the head of the former ruling family of the Ottoman Empire, has died at the age of 97 in Istanbul, Turkish media reported Friday.Osmanoglu, the grandson of the last Ottoman ruler, Sultan Abdulhamid II, died of kidney failure on Wednesday after a week in intensive care at an Istanbul hospital. He is due to be laid to rest on Saturday in the family tomb.
He was the eldest member of the Osman family, now to be led by 85- year-old Osman Beyazid Osmanoglu. Born in Istanbul in 1912, Ertugrul Osman was educated in Vienna, and went into exile with the rest of his family in 1924 at the founding of the Turkish republic. He was a longtime resident of New York City before returning to Turkey in 1992. He only received citizenship in post-Ottoman Turkey in 2004.