Philately

 

 

TheTurkish Grand National Assembly

 

by Kaya DORSAN

 

 

 

Last month we celebrated the 85th anniversary of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA). Founded by the representatives of the people on April 23, 1920, after 600 years of monarchy, the first Assembly was not slow to appear on stamps. In 1922, a series consisting of six stamps went on sale.

 

At that time, the Turkish War of Independence was still raging. The capital Ankara resembled little more than a large village, and had no printing house capable of printing stamps. Thus the 250,000 stamps were printed at the Barabino printing house in Genoa, Italy. They depicted the first building of the Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ulus.

 

The stamps in question were used for two years before being declared invalid in 1924. Now that the Turkish War of Independence was over and the Republic had been declared, new definitive stamp series were produced for use in new Republican Turkey.

 

Interesting errors

 

The first stamp series depicting the TGNA is characterised by a very poor quality of printing. This may have been due to cost calculations, or may simply reflect careless work on the part of Barabino. Be that as it may, many printing and perforation errors occurred. Some of the 3 kuruţ stamps, for instance, display the price correctly in the bottom left hand corner but appear to state a different price of 13 kuruţ in the bottom right hand corner. Again, some of the same stamps were printed on thin paper and some on thicker paper. For every value in the series, it is possible to find completely imperforate or partially imperforate examples.

 

Although these “errors” were not very rare at the time, they constitute an attractive theme for collectors today. Other interesting items are the envelope printed with the same stamp and the “letter-card” that were produced together with the TGNA stamps. Postal stationery of such kinds was commonly used in the postal service in those years

 

For philatelists collecting Turkish stamps or carrying out research on the history of Turkish mail, this first stamp series on the Turkish Grand National Assembly, together with its variations, is naturally of very special significance.