Link to Ottoman dynasty The descendant of the Anatolian ruler, Ertugrul Osman, who might have ruled the Ottoman Empire, but for the establishment of the Turkish Republic, proclaimed in 1923, spent most of his life in an apartment in Manhattan, New York. The Anatolian ruler, Osman I, who in 1299 established the kingdom that controlled parts of Europe, Africa and the Middle East that came to an end after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, led the revolution that deposed the family. In 1924, the royal family was expelled from the Turkish Re Ertugrul Osman, who was an important link to Turkey's past, reported to have expressed no regret. On having attended school in Vienna, Ertugrul Osman moved to New York in 1939. He returned to Turkey for the first time after 53 years in 1992 at the invitation of the prime minister. He ran a mining company that required him to travel frequently to South America. Because Ertugrul Osman considered himself a citizen of the Ottoman Empire, he refused to carry the passport of any country; he travelled with a certificate devised by his lawyer. In 2004, however, with the security measures tightened after 9/11, he received a Turkish passport for the first time. Ertugrul Osman died of kidney failure while visiting Istanbul.