A Fictitious Prince and European Prejudice: A Masterclass in Self-Promotion

In the 1890s, Calfa, an Armenian, masterfully leveraged European media coverage of Sultan Abdul Hamid II's persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire to craft a narrative of himself as a deposed prince in Paris. He skillfully played into existing European stereotypes of an 'oppressed Christian prince' and anti-Muslim sentiment, presenting himself as a dethroned ruler to garner sympathy, support, and credibility. This allowed him to sustain his fabricated identity for an extended period. Calfa's story highlights the interplay between information manipulation and societal biases in achieving personal goals.