Tag: Turkey stamp

The Ottoman Empire had signed the treaty recognizing the Swiss style cross as a symbol of neutrality and charity in war time. When war came, all they saw was a Crusades style Christian cross. What an opportunity to display Christian charity by not then allowing the Ottomans to rot. 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.

This stamp is from 95 years after the Russo-Turkish War that first saw the Red Cross operate under a Turkish Crescent. Given that, it is amazing how much the image chosen by Turkey still imparts Christian charity for Muslims.

Todays stamp is semi postal issue SP53 issued by Turkey in 1973. It was a three stamp issue recognizing  the 50th anniversary of the child protection program of the Red Crescent Society in Turkey. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 45cents.

Russia was in a pretty bad state after the Crimean War. The Black Sea was completely under Ottoman control and the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire was now guaranteed by Great Britain. However according to the then Russian Foreign  Minister Alexander Gorchakov, Russia was not sulking, she was composing herself. One benefit was that the Ottomans had agreed to treat non Muslims in their area more equally.

If only they had done so. However the repression of both Slavs in Bulgaria and Serbia and Armenians in Turkey itself and Lebanon took on a new severity with African recruited Bashibazouks empowered to plunder.

Russia, with it’s blood ties to both the Armenian and Slavic peoples felt that it was time to intervene and fighting occurred both in the Balkans and Armenian areas of eastern Turkey. Britain tried to hold Russia back but the result was that Bulgaria and Romania were freed of Turkey. There was much population shifting as Balkan Muslims and Jews ran to Turkey and Armenians ran to Russian controlled areas of the Caucus mountains.

Being the first war after the Red Cross was formed to give aid to war wounded who previously had no organized system of help. Perhaps surprisingly, given the importance of blood ties in this war, the Red Cross tried to help the wounded of Turkey. At first the much needed help was refused. The Swiss Cross did have Christian roots and the whole operation dripped of uniquely Christian charity. To show how deep the Christian charity went. the offer was made to operate under a stylized Turkish Muslim style crescent. It was more important to help the wounded than display who was offering the help.

In later years, the Red Cross agreed to operate under different symbols in Israel, Iran, and India. Over time this meant more globalist bureaucracy and less charity, but no good deed goes unpunished here in this world.

Well my drink is empty but I may have a few more while contemplating the idea of extending charity to those that hate you. Does that go too far into self abasement? Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. 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. We have a fun mythic tale to spin, as usual used by a new leader of a new country to bring people forward.

Visually this stamp is a mess. The paper is cheap and the printing is sub par. It is worth taking  time to study. In it you can see a master blacksmith and a wolf. The wolf is sitting by protectively, as well she might. The wolf is the blacksmith’s mother!

The stamp today is issue A66 a one Ghurush stamp issued by Turkey in 1926. It is part of a 14 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. It we are looking specifically for treasure, the stamp in this set to look out for is the mint 200 Ghurush stamp featuring the then Turkish president Kamal, worth $90. He is on a lot of stamps though, so this Philatelist will stick to the cheap stamp depicting the fun legend.

The Turkish President we know today as Ataturk, was born simply as Mustafa in present day Greece to Muslim Turkish parents. At the time people did not generally have last names. Kamal was added by a school teacher faced with 4 Mustafas in the class. Kamal means exact one as he was good at math. Ataturk was added as President when he was having everyone register a last name from an approved list of newly made up traditional Turkish last names. Ataturk was reserved for just Kamal and translates into big Turk guy. He served with distinction in the World War I Ottoman Turk army and was trained and educated by them in France, Germany, and Austria. He found himself able to maneuver into the Presidency of a new smaller Turkey now encamped in Ankara to avoid the old power centers in Istanbul.

Kamal set out to modernize a new Turkish nation. There were issues with this. There were a lot of ruins around Asia Minor but none of them were Turkish. The people were illiterate and the powerful were corrupt and defeated. Into this a lot of work went into developing a unique Turkish culture. Stories were woven of Turkish explorers mapping the world. Proof of this was offered in the name of the Amazon river in South America. Amazon River in ancient Turk translates into what a long river. Proving Turks first mapped it. The Arab alphabet was abandoned for the Latin one before universal education was put in place for the next generation. Religious garb was discouraged along with the fez which was too associated with the old system. Industrialization was also started, in my opinion leading to the myth on this stamp.

The story told on this stamp is the following. A boy is injured in a raid on his village and he becomes separated. A female wolf named Asena finds him and nurses him back to health. He then impregnates her leading to 10 super strong boys who became master blacksmiths and passed on their strength and talent to the Turkish race. An inspiring Turk story. An inspiring Ataturk story?

President Ataturk did much to modernize Turkey and ease it away from Asia and toward Europe. The pendulum is now swinging back but those opposed to that are still known as Kamalist, 90 years later. What a big Turk guy indeed.

Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another and raise it to President Mustafa Kamal Ataturk. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

Eventually even shorter run airliners would become fast jets. You wouldn’t imagine that so quickly after introduction, they would be serving in Turkey. No wonder the country decided that fact deserved a stamp, airmail of course. 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 DC-9 was pretty revolutionary in Turkey circa 1967. Two earlier similar size airliners, the Fokker Friendship, and the Vickers Viscount, are shown on this series of stamps. Their Rolls Royce Dart turboprop engines limited them to under 300 miles an hour. The DC-9 cruised at 560 miles an hour with it’s Pratt and Whitney turbofans. The stamp set also includes an aging DC-3 airliner, showing the luck of the draw possible to a Turkish traveler in 1967.

Todays stamp is issue C41, an 130 Kurus airmail stamp issued by Turkey on July 13th,1967. It was a 5 stamp issue in various denominations showing various airliners in local livery. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Douglas Aircraft had long been interested in short haul jet airliners to replace their old DC-3 propeller aircraft. Funds for development however were short. So instead they negotiated a license with Sud Aviation of France to market their Caravelle  short haul jet airliner in the USA. If there were enough orders, USA assembly of the Caravelle would have been part of the deal. Orders were not forthcoming and the license was allowed to expire. Boeing was set to offer their 727 trijet into the short haul market. This relied on much design work from the large 707 and thus was perhaps too much plane for the job. Douglas therefore designed a smaller twin jet with five across seating and with the engines on tail pods. This allowed the plane to sit lower to the ground. It also was able to operate with a crew of two instead of three. Engines on tail pods can be trouble because the wings can block airflow to the engines at certain flight angles causing stalls. Douglas addressed this by designing vortilons on the leading edge of the wings that try to direct more airflow to the engines. The DC-9 entered service in 1965 and was a big success with 2441 planes made over a 41 year production life. Over that time the name changed twice to reflect corporate musical chairs. First the DC9-80 became the MD-80 to reflect Douglas Aircraft’s merger with the McDonnell fighter company and then the MD-95 became the Boeing 717 after being merged.

As with so much these days once manufactured in the West, there is an afterlife in the East. The MD-90 model of the DC-9 was licensed made in China. When that ended the tooling was not returned to the USA. Instead a Chinese company called Comac put it back into production as the ARJ21. The DC-9 remember is now quite old  and more modern airliners are about 25 percent more efficient. So the new model is reengined and has a more modern wing designed for China by Russia’s Antonov. Conarc claims the plane is all new and designed by Chinese supercomputers. Any resemblance to the DC-9 is coincidental. The new wing proved quite challenging and the plane has not sold well taking forever to get certified as airworthy. It did recently get a big order for 25 airplanes from startup Genghis Kahn Airways.

The Turkish DC-9s had an interesting afterlife back in the USA. In the USA in 1993, there was a new low cost startup airline called Valuejet. They bought a second hand fleet of 25+ year old DC-9s including from Turkey. The workers were non union and much plane maintenance was outsourced. Pilots were even required to pay for their own continuing training which no airline had done before. The old airliners proved to be maintenance headaches and there was a big push in the FAA to ground the airline. After a crash, it was grounded for six months. When flights resumed, it was only with 15 of it’s 50 plus airplanes. Valuejet ordered 50 new 717s and changed it’s name to AirTran to overcome the infamy. It was eventually sold to Southwest, an all 737 airline. The 717s were resold to Delta who is finding cheap paid for DC-9/717s hard to replace.

Well my drink is empty and I will put the bottle away. I will need it if the day ever comes when I am to fly on one of Genghis Kahn Airways DC-9 knockoffs. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Ataturk created the modern Turkey. After his death, his subordinents had to carry on while voters and the army decide if they measure up. 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.

Seeing Ataturk in his formal western finery over 20 years after his death is a testament to his influence. Yet it is very limiting on what is acceptable after he was gone. The two major parties were both run by aging men that had served under Ataturk. What Ataturk might have done was the limit of what was possible. Now there were elections where most of the voters are looking forward not back. On the other side is the army to make sure Ataturk’s track was the only one open.

Todays stamp is issue A325, a 30 Kurush stamp issued by the Republic of Turkey in 1962. It was a 6 stamp issue in various denominations that displayed the late President Ataturk in a tuxedo. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

When Ataturk died in 1938 he was replaced with former Prime Minister Mustafa Ismet Inonu. Ismet was fairly masterful in playing the two sides off of each other and staying out of World War II. He declared war on Germany in February 1945 when Germany no longer had troops on the border. He quickly worked for an alliance with the west. The Soviet Union was very desirous of naval bases in the Dardanelles that would prevent the Soviet Black Sea fleet from being bottled up in their few warm water ports. Truman offered Turkey membership in NATO and mountains of aid. With that influence came pressure that Turkey move toward multiparty democracy. In 1946, another former Ataturk Prime Minister Celal Bayar, formed a more liberal political party.

In the 1950 election, Bayar’s slogan was when Ismet came our fortunes left. This was a little unfair, as imagine how many fortunes would have left if a more foolish President had gotten into a war with Germany or the Soviet Union. It does make the point that pocketbook issues are important and economic progress can come slowly. Bayar won and there was a peaceful transfer of power. As the 50s went on, economic progress stayed slow but the death of Stalin saw the Soviet government withdraw claims to the Dardanelles. With the crisis passed, American aid faded and Bayar had the idea of improving relations with the Soviet Union in the hope of extracting aid from them.

This proved to be too much for the Turkish Army. They understood that the Soviet fleet was still bottled up in the Black Sea and any aid would be tied to fixing that. Bayar was overthrown in a coup and there was a big purge in the government with many including Bayar jailed for treason and some even executed. The army marketed this as protecting Ataturk’s legacy. The next year there was an election where Bayar’s party was banned and Ismet’s party returned to power. The people showed they were not completely behind it by not giving Ismet enough votes to avoid a weak coalition government, but at least the army returned to barracks. In 1965 Bayar’s party, still without Bayar, won but the army decided on another coup in 1970.

This seems quite a iffy situation to allow for NATO membership, but the prospect of keeping the Soviet fleet bottled up on the Black Sea and having the Soviets worried about their southern flank was too attractive militarily. Erdogan is now the new Ottoman Emperor and suddenly there are no more Turkish Ataturk stamps. Yet perhaps there is a reason that he seems so paranoid about a coup. Also reasons why President Trump hems and haws about letting Turkey buy and build under license NATO level weapons.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast all the good men who labor in the shadow of great men. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

This is quite the exotic early stamp. A postal system then was modern and Western, but the stamp is Eastern and traditional. 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.

This is quite the badly printed stamp. Notice the right area of white where the perforations are supposed to come in. No perforations and we see the beginning of the printing of the next stamp on the sheet. Similarly the left side has no white area. Stamp printing then was done with typeography which is an expensive form of printing. This was because stamps were really a form of currency and therefore care must be taken to print at a level not easily counterfeited. It is perhaps a metaphor for the late Ottomans that the money was spent on the fancy typography but result was just sloppy.

Todays stamp is issue A5, a 10 Piaster stamp issued by the Ottoman Empire in 1873. This stamp issue existed for over 10 years with many variations and overprints. If I am making the correct judgement as to which mine is, the Scott catalog states the value as $110 mint. There doesn’t seem to be a value adjustment for the print mistake made above. If they had printed the issue on both sides of the paper or inverted the overprint the value would rapidly rise. The overprint at the bottom is the denomination while the sides say Ottoman Postage in Turkish but with earlier Arabic script.

The Ottoman Empire was in its Tanzimat era of reforms and ruled by Sultan Abdulaziz. He was the first Sultan that traveled extensively in the west. The Tanzimat reforms granted more rights to non Muslims and sought to modernize the military and the banking system. There was an alliance with Britain and a series of wars with Russia who was concerned over the treatment of Slavs and Armenians in the far flung Empire. The wars and westerm babbles were adding a large debt burden and the gradual pull back of the Ottomans was adding millions of new residents to Asia Minor, to the annoyance of the in place Turkish majority.

Sultan Abdulaziz hit upon a strategy to take care of his debts. He would grant self rule to non ethnic Turk areas in return for an annual donation yo the Ottoman treasury. Unfortunately this revenue was just immediately leveraged to take on more loans.

While spending lavishly on the military including ironclad battleships and German training for army officers, to police the empire the Sultan relied on more traditional means. The Bashi-bazouk were irregular forces that were not paid or given uniforms, but were expected to put down rebellions brutally and then reward themselves afterword with looting and pillaging. It was something real that was happening but also used to great effect by Russia to convince Balkan Slavs that the Ottomans had to go.

The Ottoman Empire went bankrupt in 1875 and Sultan Abdulaziz was forced to abdicate the next year by his ministers. When his successor Sultan Murad V showed signs of paranoia, fear and was constantly vomiting and fainting at his coronation, the ministers had worries. They thought people would see Murad and demand the thrown be returned to Abdulaziz. So 6 days later Abdulaziz was murdered in his palace by having his wrists cut with scissors so suicide could be claimed. Murad V was then deposed 93 days later and all the instability lead to another disasterous war with Russia.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Sultan Abdulaziz’s ministers. They were great, big fan. Hey, wait a minute, put down those scissors….. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting, I hope…