Chapter XII: The Fall of the Empire

The Ottoman Union Assembly was able to totally seize control of Turkey in 1913 AD and set up a one-party system.

From promoting the Ottoman Empire’s advancement on the basis of modern principles to racialized nationalism and the state’s Turkification, its slogans underwent a radical transformation. The movement veered toward intolerance of Turkish nationalism and a fight against even the Turkish language, as they pushed for the Turkish language’s purification from all Arabic terminology and the elimination of the Ottoman letters from it.

And as soon as it was able to establish the state, it changed its name in 1915 AD, from the Ottoman Union Association, to the Association for Union and Progress.

They got rid of the word “Ottoman” from their name along with any other references to Ottomanism, making it impossible for the populace to be misled by slogans to turn them against the Sultan and the Empire even now.

In 1916 AD, a key ideological turning point, the Association for Union and Progress finally revealed its full and true self. The movement then announced its official adoption of secularism in legislation and laws, which was followed by the abolition of the Islamic religion, the Holy Qur’an, and Islamic law from the state.

Autumn of 1916 A.D., World War I broke out two years ago, forty thousand Ottoman army forces, Muslims, Turks, Arabs, Kurds, and others, were fighting on the Ukrainian front against the Russian army, after the alliance of the Ottoman Empire with the Axis countries led by Germany.

The XV Corps of the Ottoman Turkish Army was sent to western Ukraine, in the regions of Galicia and Volhynia, to support the German forces in repelling the offensive of the forces of the Russian Empire.

And as usual, the Ottomans are very brave, men of war, but the weather! It was a thorny dilemma, they were defeated by cold and snow before they suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Russian army, and captured more than 600 Turkish fighters, before the rest withdrew from Ukrainian territory.

One Ottoman Turk, who escaped death, captivity, and defeat.

The forgotten prince, Prince Suleiman.

Unknown tiny prince made the decision to resist the governing court’s decision to form an alliance with Germany. He made an effort to persuade the Sultan that he needed to regain his position of authority before the state fell apart entirely.

He realized it was the wrong choice, and he paid dearly for his disagreement. Not far from Istanbul and the entirety of the war, but to its bloodiest theater, Ukraine, the Association for Union and Progress exiled him, not as a prince, not as a military commander, but as a soldier with no authority other than to obey instructions. He lost every regal title that he had.

He objected, rebelled, and left the war.

He was viewed as a traitor, and his file was permanently closed since, according to legend, he would remain a stain on the Ottomans and Turkey until the Day of the Resurrection. As a result, the prince lost track of who he was and became forgotten.

After Ukraine had been liberated, he continued to reside there under a fake name and an acquired last name. He claimed to be a member of the family of his wife, from whom he had given birth and had no remaining ties to his royal lineage other than his secretive royal papers, which now serve only as a curse to him and his progeny. If the truth about their roots is revealed, a curse may befall them, depriving them of all rights in Ukraine and maybe banishing them from the country.

His royal papers, he kept them very far from Istanbul, and from Ukraine, in the south of Egypt, Assiut, was written for them to remain buried in that palace, for a long time.

After Turkey’s defeat in World War I, the empire fell apart in the year 1918 AD, the Union and Progress Association disbanded, and its head departed the country.

Following that, Turkey entered a new phase and became a secular state. Its frontiers retreated to those of contemporary Turkey, and the nations that made up the winning coalition in the war divided the remaining portions of its territory.

A stage of confusion, during which the sultan and his entire family were exiled, and the Ottomans’ page in history was closed.

The curtain has fallen on the story of an empire and the last Islamic caliphate.