The French post offices in the Ottoman Empire were post offices in various cities of the Ottoman Empire run by France between 1812 and 1923. France was one of nine countries that had negotiated "Capitulations" with the Ottomans, various extraterritorial rights in exchange for trade opportunities. In the case of mail, the countries' purpose was to facilitate communication between business interests at home and agents throughout the Middle East. The system came to end with the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923.
Originally, the post office used postage stamps of France, but these were denominated in centimes and francs instead of the local piasters, so beginning in 1885, some French stamps were surcharged 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 on 13 October 1914. After the war, only the office in Istanbul reopened, operating from August 1921 to July 1923. Stamps of France were again surcharged, with values from 30 paras to 75 piasters.
Four post offices also issued their own stamps between 1893 and 1903: Cavalle (present-day Kavala), Dedeagh (Dedeagatch, present-day Alexandroupoli), Port Lagos, and Vathy (Samos).
Post offices:
- Alexandretta
- Beirut
- Candia (now Iraklion)
- Canea (now Chania)
- Castellorizo
- Cavalle
- Constantinople
- Dedeagh
- Galata
- Gallipoli
- Jaffa
- Jerusalem
- Kustendje (now Constanţa)
- Latakia
- Merson
- Port Lagos
- Rhodes
- Rodosto
- Salonica
- Sinope
- Smyrna
- Sulina
- Trebizond
- Tripoli
- Tulcea
- Varna
- Volos
Famous quotes containing the words french, post, offices and/or empire:
“‘Are ye right there, Michael? are ye right?
Do you think that we’ll be there before the night?
Ye’ve been so long in startin’,
That ye couldn’t say for sartin’—
Still ye might now, Michael, so ye might!’”
—William Percy French (1854–1920)
“My business is stanching blood and feeding fainting men; my post the open field between the bullet and the hospital. I sometimes discuss the application of a compress or a wisp of hay under a broken limb, but not the bearing and merits of a political movement. I make gruel—not speeches; I write letters home for wounded soldiers, not political addresses.”
—Clara Barton (1821–1912)
“Of course we women gossip on occasion. But our appetite for it is not as avid as a man’s. It is in the boys’ gyms, the college fraternity houses, the club locker rooms, the paneled offices of business that gossip reaches its luxuriant flower.”
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–1978)
“Our ancestors were savages. The story of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf is not a meaningless fable. The founders of every state which has risen to eminence have drawn their nourishment and vigor from a similar wild source. It was because the children of the Empire were not suckled by the wolf that they were conquered and displaced by the children of the northern forests who were.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)