Nilüfer Akcoşkun Bozbağ never expected to uncover a royal connection in her family. After her mother passed away in 2021, she began researching her ancestry. What she found was astonishing. She discovered she is the seventh-generation descendant of an Ottoman grand vizier. Her remarkable story has become a major talking point across Turkey.
The grand vizier in question is Melek Mehmed Pasha, who served under Sultan Selim III. A grand vizier was the most powerful official in the Ottoman Empire. Bozbağ claims that after his time in power, Pasha settled in Çeşme. Çeşme is a famous resort town on Turkey's Aegean coast, near İzmir.
Through her research in Ottoman archives, Bozbağ identified twenty plots of land. These properties cover a total area of 120,000 square meters. She also learned her ancestor was the first mayor of Çeşme. Based on these findings, she boldly claims two-thirds of the town belongs to her family.
Bozbağ has been pursuing her inheritance through legal proceedings for five years. If her claims were proven valid, it would be one of history's biggest inheritance cases. However, claiming property from the Ottoman era has always been extremely difficult. Many legal experts remain skeptical about whether such old claims can succeed in court.
