Philately

Touristic cancellations

by Kaya DORSAN

Turkey became aware of its tourism potential during the initial years of the Republic, and a Tourism Congress was held in Istanbul in July 1931. However, the advent of World War II heralded a long period of stagnation for the sector all over the world. In the 1950s, international leisure travel revived, and Turkey resumed its efforts to promote itself.

Philately played an important part in these promotion initiatives. It was only natural for Turkey to promote its historical, cultural and ethnographic richness on its postage stamps. Not satisfied with that, it also began to make use of special postmarks – i,e, cancellations.

First resorts

The first touristic cancellation was used at the end of 1955, in the post office at the Yalova Thermal Springs, and bore a picture of the station. Soon afterwards, a special postmark came into use at Uludağ in Bursa, displaying the image of the mountain. From 1957 onwards, it was common to see cancellations depicting various touristic regions. These included the resort of Şile near Istanbul, Izmir’s famous seaside township Çeşme, Lake Abant and the ancient city of Ephesus with its House of the Virgin Mary.

In the 1960s, more and more of the sites favoured by tourists came to be depicted on touristic postmarks, among them Pamukkale, Boğazkale, Göreme and Konya. Today, such cancellations are to be found on letters and postcards sent from places of interests as far apart as Doğubayazıt and the Manyas Bird Paradise, Samsun and the Sarıkamış Ski Center.

The use of postal cancellations as a means of promotion has proved so effective that some hotels have also begun to promote themselves in this way. Moreover, it is also possible to send letters and postcards with special pictorial postmarks from many museums in Turkey, particularly Topkapı Palace and the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations in Ankara.

Any collectors?

Unfortunately, the cancellations have been slow to attract the attention of philatelists. No catalogue of these postmarks has yet been published, and information about them is incomplete even at the archives of the Turkish Post Office (PTT).

The usage of some of the cancellations has been stopped, and they are not available anymore.

Given that collectors are drawn towards rare items, it would not be surprising if philatelists soon began to collect these postmarks.

(DIPLOMAT  -  April 2005  -  Ankara)