STAMPS of TURKEY - A Book by Adolf PASSLER

PAGE 1

INTRODUCTION

At the beginning of 1863 Turkey followed the example of Great Britain and other countries by adopting adhesive labels for the prepayment of the postage, the first government stamps being issued during the reign of Sultan Abdul Aziz.

Until then the right to transmit mails had been conceded to various private companies, who used their own labels. Before the advent of these companies mails were transported by the Consular services of various European Powers, and this rival system was continued even after the Turkish post offices had begun to operate, though it was then used almost exclusively for mail to foreign countries.

Personal liberty in European and in Asiatic Turkey was far less secure than in the Western countries of Europe, and as the merchants in turkey were naturally desirous of having their mails transported safely and quickly, it is easy to understand that they preferred to use the Consular mails of Great Powers, which by degrees developed into regular postal services, rather than avail themselves of the dubious facilities of the Turkish Government post.

According to Stamps of the Levant Post Offices, by D. B. Armstrong, London, 1913, there existed from the Peace of Passarovitz in 1721 an Austrian service of couriers between Vienna and the Austrian Imperial Mission in Constantinople, which in 1729 developed into a regular public post, freely used by the English and Dutch merchants at Constantinople.

Article 12 of the Treaty between Turkey and Russia of 1720, and Article 21 of the Austrian Treaty of 1739, recognized the right of these countries to maintain their courier services. Article 76 of the Treaty of Commerce between Turkey and Russia of the 21st June, 1783, guaranteed the security of postal services between the, and, in the following year, a like guarantee was obtained for the postal service between Turkey and Austria. Similar treaties were concluded in 1812 with France, in 1832 with Great Britain, and in 1834 with Greece.

After Turkey had entered the Universal Postal Union in 1875, the Sublime Porte tired repeatedly to induce the Great Powers to abolish their post offices in Turkey, but it was not until 1914 that the foreign capitulations were abolished, and with them the foreign post offices. In 1912 there were 103 foreign post offices still operating in Turkish territory.

After the fall of Constantinople on 29th May 1453, capitulations, i.e. an agreement divided into sections, capitula, were granted by Sultan Mehmet II to the Genoese inhabitants of the suburb of Galata, conferring certain privileges of residence and trade, and also the "right to come and go by land and sea." The original document, in Greek, bearing the Tughra of the Sultan at the top, can be seen in the British Museum. This grant was merely an extension of the ancient Islamic Law of "Aman", by which the life and property of foreigners in a Moslem country were safeguarded for one year. The privileges granted by Mehmet II were confirmed, and again extended, by Suleiman the Great. These grants were made voluntarily by the early Sultans for the mutual benefit of their subjects and the foreigners in their midst. It was not until much later when the privileges began to be abused, that the Turkish Government resented the capitulations and regarded them as grievance.

The first capitulations were granted to France in 1528, and were confirmed and extended in 1740. Further capitulations were granted to England in 1580 and 1675, to Holland in 1612 and 1680, to Austria in 1718, to Denmark in 1736, to Sweden in 1737, to Prussia in 1761, to Spain in 1782, to Russia in 1783, and to the USA in 1830. When Turkey entered the Great War in 1914, the Sublime Porte abolished the capitulations in September 1914.

Turkey was somewhat tardy in providing a regular Government postal service. Up to 1840 there was only one between Constantinople and Adrianople (Edirne). It is not known when it was started, but it only served for the transmission of official correspondence, private letters not being accepted. At the end of 1840 the  Turkish Government decided to extend the postal service by a connection between Constantinople and other large towns of the Empire, and to allow private persons to use it.

According to an order of the General Director of the Imperial post, dated the 11th November 1840, which gives particulars of this service, post offices were to be opened in all important places in the Empire. Their establishment, however, progressed very slowly, for in 1863, there were, as far as can be ascertained, only fifty-eight post offices in the entire Turkish Empire; of these twenty-nine were in Europe, twenty-eight in Asia and one on the Island of Mytilene. An examination of places which were first furnished with post offices gives an interesting indication of the political and economic value of different towns at that period. It would be outside the scope of this work to enumerate them here.

In places without post offices letters were accepted by Government cashiers, and their deputies, or by officials specially entrusted with this duty, and the postage was paid by the addressees. Prepayment of postage was accepted only in places with post offices. The scarcity of post offices in provinces, and the consequent difficulty of making cash payments for the postage of letters sent or received, was the reason why a postal service was originally established between the capital and certain provincial places only, and none between those places themselves.

The postal connection was a fortnightly one, i.e. in the first week the post left Constantinople for the European, and the next week for the Asiatic provinces. The first dispatch to Europe was on the 28th October, 1840; and the first to Asia on the 2nd November, 1840. The posts from the provinces arrived in the same order every fortnight.

At first only ordinary letters and printed matter were allowed, the forwarding of registered missives, cash and samples being promised for a later date.

Next Page