Attested by the best Turkish sources ( Ali Kemal Meram, Padisah Analari [The Mothers of the Sultans], Istanbul: Toplumsal Dönüsüm Yayinlari, 1997.), Abdul-Hamid – like Hitler who is said to have had a Jewish mother —had an Armenian mother called Virginie, a native of Russia.
She had been the preferred favorite of Abdul-Medjid and had given him a son, Abdul- Hamid.
Thus the most charming of Sultans fathered the most odious tyrant.
During the reign of Hamid, the first lady of the Empire, the Sultana Validé, was Armenian, the only one to have given birth to an Ottoman Sultan.
by Mano Chil
