Armenia stamp – The-Philatelist

Wartime fortunes can lead to overprints on rather incongruous stamps. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The stamp today is very attractive. It was first an Ottoman Turk issue celebrating 50 years of Ottoman postage stamps. It shows the early post office building in Constantinople. When the Turk post offices in Cilicia were captured by the French the stock of Turkish stamps was repurposed and overstampted reflecting the French occupation. The Ottomans had carried out a very deadly genocide against Armenian Christians and a goal of the French occupation was to allow some of the Armenian survivors return home. One can imagine the desperate letters of refugees in the area trying to keep in touch with now far away family. How incongruous it must have been sending those letters using stamps designed to celebrate Ottoman postal heritage.

Todays stamp is issue A41, a 20 Para stamp originally issued in Turkey in 1916 and overstamped in 1919 to reflect the French occupation of the Turkish region of Cilicia. The original Turkish issue had five stamps in various denominations. Only the 20 Para stamp of this issue was overprinted by Cilicia. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $4 whether mint or used. An inverted overprint would double the value. The regular unoverprinted Turkish version of the stamp is worth $1.

Cilicia is on the southeast coast or Asia minor near the Syrian border. It was the home of an independent Armenian empire into late Byzantine times. The area was absorbed by the Ottomans but still home to many Armenians into the early 20th century. The Christian Armenians, with some reason, were viewed as disloyal to the Ottoman Empire and during World War I it was decided to force them out. Their property was seized and all were marched out toward an unwelcoming Syria. The Armenian population in Turkey dropped 80 percent and many died.

Toward the end of the military campaigns the region of Cilicia fell into French military hands. Armenians hoped for an autonomous region and plans were made to move 170, 000 Armenians back to the area. At the end of the war Ottoman higher ups fled Turkey to avoid justice for their crimes. Cilicia did not last long with the French returning it to Turkey in 1923 in exchange for Turkish recognition of their claims to Syria and Lebanon.

The Armenians were able to get revenge on who they viewed as Ottoman war criminals. The soon to be Soviet republic of Armenia started Operation Nemesis named after the Greek goddess of divine retribution. Over the next few years Armenians were sent to Berlin and Rome where many of the Ottomans were now living. After assassinating the target Turk they were to turn themselves over readily to the police. Their trials were then used to make the Armenians case, Many of the assassins were acquitted even though there was no question of their guilt. There were 7 assassinations including the Ottoman Pasha that originally ordered the Armenians into exile.

Well, my drink is empty and I will pour another not to toast all the violent politics but the stamps original purpose of celebrating Ottoman postal heritage. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Armenians had a terrible time around the time of this stamp. Armenians had suffered a horrible massacre in the hands of the Ottoman Turks. Finally a little hope when the Russian Revolution for a short period lost grip of Armenia. Only to have that grip come back a few years later. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

With it’s unusual paper and being imperferate, there is an air of this being a fake stamp. There is some reason to think this even though catalogs recognize them. The very short lived republic of Armenia ordered stamps printed in Paris but never actually delivered as the government fell so fast. Than the Soviet Republic that put out this issue was quickly folded into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federation with Georgia and Azerbaijan. They also had a few stamps till the Soviets just made them use the Russian issues. In fact only one denomination, the 25 Ruble, of this series even made it into post offices. The catalog does not even list a canceled version but urges the stamp collector to be on the lookout for fakes. I think perhaps sympathy for the Armenians plight might have lead the catalog to list a fake stamp. Just my opinion…

Todays stamp is issue A16, a 1000 Ruble stamp issued by the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1921. The stamp displays a fisherman on the Aras River. It was part of a 17 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents. There is also a perforated version of the stamp but that does not effect it’s value either way. One can see the high denomination, later once the rampant inflation of the time was dealt with, there were overstamps of this issue with the new denominations. These tend to have a slightly higher value.

Armenia tried to get itself free from both Turkey and Russia at the end of World War I. The Turkish genocide of Armenians, many who had fought for czarist Russia, caused a migration of ethnic Armenians to the new country. The peace treaty between the Bolsheviks and the new nation of Turkey left certain areas in Turk hands that Armenians thought belonged to them. Soon the Red Army arrived in the area to bring Armenia and the other new countries back into the fold. After fighting a deal was struck with Armenia becoming an autonomous Soviet Republic in return for the Red Army guaranteeing the borders and no persecution of former non communists. When this last part was reneged upon, a new Armenian mountainous republic rebelled and held out for another year but without stamps.

The Soviet Union then had the idea of merging Christian Armenia and Georgia with Muslim Azerbiajan as the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. With atheism and Soviet nationalism being promoted, the Soviets had hope for this. Of course the divisions were too deep and eventually in 1936 the states were allowed to be separate Soviet Republics.

Interestingly, in 1922 the Soviets appointed Alexander Martuni as their leader on site. He was a scholor of Armenian arts and literature and even wrote books and articles promoting it. This allowed a separate Armenian culture to flourish and did much to lessen opposition. However Moscow began to worry that Martuni was not Sovietizing the place fast enough. In 1925 he was killed in a suspicious plane crash of the Junkers F.13 he was flying in. Some believe Minister of State Security Beria was behind the crash. Unusually for a Soviet era official, Martuni is still revered in modern independent Armenia, even getting a stamp issue honoring him in 2012. Armenia achieved independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Well my drink is empty ao I will open the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.