- French post offices in the Ottoman Empire
The French post offices in the Ottoman Empire were
post office s in various cities of theOttoman Empire run byFrance between 1812 and 1923. France was one of nine countries that had negotiated "Capitulations" with the Ottomans, various extra-territorial rights in exchange for trade opportunities. In the case ofmail , the countries' purpose was to facilitate communication between business interests at home and agents throughout theMiddle East . The system came to end with theTreaty of Lausanne in 1923.Originally, the post office used
postage stamp s of France, but these were denominated in centimes andfranc s instead of the localpiaster s, so beginning in 1885, some French stamps weresurcharge d in piasters, at a rate of four piasters to the franc.Beginning in 1902, the Merson series was issued with the inscription "LEVANT", both as centime/franc, and with higher values surcharged in piasters. In 1905, 15c stamps in
Beirut were surcharged with "1 Piastre / Beyrouth".World War I forced the closure of all the post offices on13 October 1914 . After the war, only the office inIstanbul reopened, operating from August 1921 to July 1923. Stamps of France were again surcharged, with values from 30para s to 75 piasters.Four post offices also issued their own stamps between 1893 and 1903:
Cavalle (present-dayKavala ),Dedeagh (Dedeagatch , present-dayAlexandroupoli ),Port Lagos , and Vathy (Samos).Post offices:
*Alexandretta
*Beirut
* Candia (nowadays "Iraklion")
* Canea (nowadays "Chania")
*Castellorizo
*Cavalle
*Istanbul *
Dedeagh
* Galata
* Gallipoli
* Jaffa
*Jerusalem
* Kustendje (nowadays "Constanţa")
*Latakia
* Merson*
Port Lagos
*Rhodes
* Rodosto
* Salonica
*Sinop e
* Smyrna
*Sulina
* Trebizond
*Tripoli
*Tulcea *
Varna
*Volos ee also
*
French post offices abroad
*French post offices in Crete
*French post offices in Egypt Sources
*
Stanley Gibbons Ltd: various catalogues
* [http://www.jl.sl.btinternet.co.uk/stampsite/home.html Encyclopaedia of Postal History]
* Stuart Rossiter & John Flower: "The Stamp Atlas"External links
* [http://robert.desert.chez-alice.fr/index.htm "Bureaux français de l'Empire ottoman"] , specialized website awarded by the
Académie de philatélie in 2001.
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