When he arrived at Atatürk Airport in 1960 to make a connection to his flight, his heart was about to skip a beat. He was flying to London from Cairo with a transit over İstanbul and he was going to stay in İstanbul for one night. For the first time, he was going to see the lands where his father, who had left the country with the passing of 3 March 1924 exile rule, was born, and, the city where his grandfathers had ruled. When he got off the plane and rode into İstanbul, passing The Old Walls with the Turkish flag flying above, he got emotional and could not hold back his tears.

Nejla Chawky is the only ‘Hanım Sultan’(Imperial Princess) living in the United States. Her mother, Princess Fatma Samire, was the daughter of Prince Mehmed Abdulhalim. Members of the Ottoman Dynasty who bore the title “hanım sultan” were the daughters of an Imperial Princess.   Princess Nejla was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where her father was Egypt’s Ambassador. Her first schooling was in Romania where, after Brazil, her father served as Ambassador. 

On August 4, 1935, the front-page headline of newspapers throughout the United States announced that Prince Abdülkerim had committed suicide in a room in the Cadillac Hotel, located on 43rd Street and Broadway in New York. The young Prince had 75 cents in his pocket, the newspapers said, and claimed that he had left a letter in Turkish to the New York’s chief of police. The police did not show the letter to the press; only later was it allegedly translated into English by an official of the Turkish Consulate in New York and presented to the media. This news also hit the front page of the New York Times.  In this letter, the young Prince was said to have claimed that he had fallen ill trying to regain his dynasty and throne; he had proposed marriage to a rich woman from the Bronx, Alice De Stefano, believing that such a marriage would allow him to realize his dreams. Her rejection caused him to fall into a depression and, as a result, he could not think of any other way out except by committing suicide.

It was a warm spring night. A group of people gathered at the Bergen Turkish-American Mosque and Cultural Center in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. They were very enthusiastic about their guest who would be watching a documentary about the‘Ottoman Family in Exile’ with them. The 8-year-old-boy in the crowd was probably the most excited one of all. He was expecting to see the Princess with a crown, and he came with his plastic sword to protect her.  The honored guest was Mediha Nami Osmanoğlu de Martinez who is the oldest daughter of Osman Nami, who is Abülhamid’s daughter Ayşe Sultan’s son. She watched the documentary with tears along with the participants.