Ottoman empire could not survive if all Muslims would have refused it, something the nationalists here do not understand. It was an Islamic caliphate, todays Turkey being the center yes, just like we can rant all day about the Abbasid caliphate which has much more "greatness" than the Ottoman empire but that’s not the way I do things.
The Ottoman empire isn’t a Turkish empire, you can add a nationalist identity to an Islamic caliphate if you want, others will not accept it just as we aren’t going to place a nationalist claim on the Abbasid as our empire, or Saudis Rashidun, & Syrians Ummayad as theirs or as many Iranians do, claim the inventions of the golden Islamic age as Iranian inventions.
Or Kurds claiming the Salahdin conquests who's army wasn’t even completely Kurdish neither nationalist.
Yes, agreed, but to see it as a Turkish empire, that’s not the case.