Breaking News: The Rebuilding of the Ottoman Empire

In January of this year, we received a set of emails showing something the world had not expected. Emails showing the close attempt by a select few to rebuild the historic and greatly infamous Ottoman Empire that had been abolished since 1922, when it was overthrown by a post-world war revolution. That group of people though, were the princes of the Ottoman Empire.

Prince Selim Djem, Prince Serhat-Daniel Gumrukcu, and to a lesser extent Prince Mahmud Osmanaglu were the attempters in the email to claim either the Bir Tawil triangle in Egypt or the Imia/Kardak Islands off the coast of Turkey based on the fact that the land was formerly in control of the Ottoman Empire and both currently hold the status of Terra Nullius, meaning that no country controls this territory and no country has rights to it, since it is disputed, unowned land.

Together the Princes chose the Bir Tawil triangle as the new homeland of the Ottoman Empire. A small stretch of land between Egypt and Sudan that is nearly the size of the Comoros or Mauritius. The Bir Tawil triangle is unique in the fact that no country claims this land at all, a remnant from the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

The plan outlined was to use international law including the succession of rights to the land and the family, the montevideo convention, UN General Assembly Resolution 1514, and numerous other laws and attempts to be sure the land was legally accepted as the rebuilt Ottoman territory. Prince Selim Djem, a writer, volunteered to his cousins to form a petition for the world to sign, while Serhat planned to use connections to work with the UN. The plan was coming together, the Empire would be back.

Unfortunately, the world newest remake of a country didn't come into being. The project was deemed too risky and the family did not take the steps to reform their empire that once held such a large influence over the world. No word on the Princes has come since the project was scrapped, but the idea lives on. Even the fact that the empire almost came back into being is truly historic. Hopefully in the near future, we will see what is in store for the House of Osman.