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Head of the former Ottoman dynasty dies
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-25 02:36

ANKARA, Turkey: Authorities say Osman Ertugrul Osmanoglu, the eldest member of the former Ottoman dynasty, has died. He was 97.

The Culture Ministry said Thursday that Osmanoglu died of kidney failure at an Istanbul hospital a day earlier.

He was a grandson of Sultan Abdulhamit II and was regarded as the head of the living members of the dynasty.

He had moved to the United States in 1933, almost a decade after the dynasty was exiled to Europe following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and formation of the republic.

Ertugrul was married to Zeynep Tarzi, an exiled member of the Afghan royal family. He returned to Turkey in 1992 and was granted Turkish citizenship in 2004.

The Ottoman Empire lasted some 600 years and ruled Turkey and parts of the Middle East and eastern Europe.