Prenses Facıla

Prenses Fazıla (born August 8, 1941 in Paris ) is the great-granddaughter of the last Ottoman Sultan Vahdettin and thus a member of the Osman family . Her full name is Prenses Nabila Sabiha Fazıla İbrahim Hanımsultan . Her father was a member of the Egyptian dynasty Muhammad Ali Ibrahim. Her mother was Hanzade Sultan . Prince Ahmad Rifat (1944–2011) was Fazıla's younger brother. Fazıla grew up in Egypt. After the coup in 1952 , the family had to leave Egypt and settle in Paris. In the same year, the female members of the Osman dynasty were allowed to enter Turkey.

Fazıla gained notoriety because she was promised to be a wife to the Iraqi King Faysal II of the Hashemite dynasty .

Engagement to the Iraqi king

Fazıla was 16 years old at the time and was very beautiful. Tradition has it that Faysal had his eye on Princess Fazıla through a photograph. Faysal hosted a big ball in the summer of 1954; The Iraqi ambassador's wife is said to have approached the king and showed him a picture of Fazıla, who was living in exile in Paris. According to the story, the still young king got the family address and met Princess Fazıla personally on an immediately arranged trip abroad. In 1957, the two are said to have met again in Istanbul and spent time bathing and water skiing in the Marmara Sea. On July 12, 1957, Faysal asked for her hand and the engagement was celebrated at Abu-Bakır-Yalı in Yeniköy. Faysal left two days later. Shortly afterwards, mother Hanzade Sultan announced the engagement at a press conference. At the same time, the upcoming wedding was announced on Radio Baghdad. A week later, a delegation led by Prime Minister Nuri as-Said brought a brooch and an emerald ring as an engagement present. Fazıla was attending a finishing school in London, where she spent a year preparing for her future role as queen. Uncle Faysals checked the trousseau. On July 14, 1958, Faysal was to travel to Istanbul to take part in a session of the Baghdad Pact ; Fazıla was due to arrive from London a few days later. Faysal and the future bride then wanted to spend summer vacation on the Bosporus and get married in the first week of September. On July 14, 1958, in anticipation of King Faysal, Prince Abd ul-Ilah and Prime Minister Nuri as-Said Pasha, Istanbul was flagged, and the red carpet had already been rolled out at the airport . According to Ümit Bayazoğlu, the Turkish population was particularly excited because they saw King Faysal as “their brother-in-law”. Faysal and his company were never to arrive in Istanbul, however, as a military coup ended the royal rule in Iraq and Faysal and his family were murdered.

Next life

Fazıla then disappeared from the headlines. In 1965 she married Hayri Ürgüplü, the son of the former Turkish Prime Minister Suat Hayri Ürgüplü . The marriage resulted in two sons. After 15 years, the couple divorced. In 1983 Fazıla married the French Jean-Alphons Bernard.

literature

• Ümit Bayazoğlu: Uzun, İnce Yolcular. 42 portre. Aras Yayıncılık, Istanbul 2014, ISBN 978-605-5753-42-9 .