The United States is not the only country burdened with people obsessed with privilege – Turkey has its own burden to bear, which is compounded by the imperial ambitions of President Erdogan. In an upcoming referendum, he and his party, the AKP, are using the Ottoman Empire’s cachet to push for passage of constitutional amendments which will centralize power in the hands of the Presidency. However, they’ve run into a snag – or, more pointedly, someone who believes in privilege even more than they do – a member of the erstwhile royal family. Pinar Tremblay of AL Monitor reports:
An Ottoman military flag captured in the Siege of Vienna (1683)
Source: WikipediaAnd on Jan. 26, one of the dozens of descendants of the Ottoman House of Osman dynasty, Nilhan Osmanoglu, tweeted a video of herself declaring her support for the constitutional amendments that Erdogan wants to vastly increase the power of his office. Her endorsement of the imperial presidency was cherished by pro-Justice and Development Party (AKP) accounts, and her tweet became an instant trending topic. While attending a formal gathering Jan. 31, Osmanoglu targeted Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP). Kilicdaroglu, who is against the amendments, had asked voters to consider why they were not happy with a parliamentary system. Osmanoglu responded by saying Turks have had enough of the parliamentary system; in a well-crafted speech, she touched all the nerves of Turkish conservatives by blaming the traumatic events Turkey has been suffering on the parliamentary system.
Her words generated reaction from the opposition, and she became a celebrity overnight in Turkey. …
Next, she went on a talk show and confessed she considers herself blue-blooded royalty and hence would love to see the monarchy reinstated. She also went to court demanding lands and property she claims belong to her royal ancestors. She had stated on various TV shows that while Ottomans are en vogue in Turkey, she could not remain as a ghost. She declared that if the courts in Turkey fail to return the lands and property back to her family, she would take the inheritance case to the European Court of Human Rights.
In interviews, she lamented that that she has no heirloom jewelry from her family. She said that when she goes to Saudi Arabia, she is hosted as a princess, but in Turkey she is not accorded the proper protocol.
Osmanoglu’s limited education has not helped her cause. She was ridiculed by all corners of society when she claimed Napoleon (who died decades before Osmanoglu’s favorite sultan, Abdulhamid, was born) had said that “Abdulhamid is the second-richest man on earth after me.”
This all rings a bell, doesn’t it? Yeah, that one of unreasonable privilege. She doesn’t have to be knowledgeable, or work hard – she just has to be a member of the royal family. In fact, this reminds me of the general philosophy of supremacism – and what I consider its fatal flaw. Brought up American, I find her assumptions about what she deserves to be ludicrous.
And it’s not working out so well for the AKP.
Al-Monitor contacted several businessmen and Islamists, all of whom were looking for ways to disown Osmanoglu and distance her statements from the Ottoman legacy. One prominent business owner in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul told Al-Monitor, “This market dates back centuries into Ottoman times. The AKP has given us an alternative reality — an Ottomania where we thought the past could be changed. It was the alluring glory of the fantasy of neo-Ottomanism that held me loyal to the AKP, until the greedy face of this fake sultana filled my living room. The Ottoman dream is no longer comforting, but rather appears brutal.”
Indeed, Osmanoglu’s products and other kitsch images of the Ottoman dream now stand as a sign of the intellectual weakness in the AKP ranks.
So they were looking back at what they wished was a rosy past – and it’s not quite so rosy. I fear we’re doing the same dance. Folks are vulnerable to a bit of charisma the world over, aren’t they?
