page_title: Postage stamps and postal history of Turkey
section_title: The Nationalist Government (Anatolia)
hierarchical_section_title: Postage stamps and postal history of Turkey / The Nationalist Government (Anatolia)
context_page_description: The postal history of Turkey and its predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, dates to the 18th century when foreign countries maintained courier services through their consular offices in the Empire. Although delayed in the development of its own postal service, in 1863 the Ottoman Empire became the second independent country in Asia to issue adhesive postage stamps, and in 1875, it became a founding member of the General Postal Union, soon to become the Universal Postal Union. The Ottoman Empire became the Republic of Turkey in 1923, and in the following years, its postal service became more modernized and efficient and its postage stamps expertly designed and manufactured.
  The Ottoman Empire's early or "classic" stamp issues between 1863 and 1888 are popular among philatelists, and its postal cancellations have received extensive study. Philatelists collect stamps used in various parts of the Ottoman Empire, such as Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Greece. Turkey's stamps also have a complex history of overprints of interest to philatelists.
context_section_description: Following the armistice, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk formed a Nationalist Government in Ankara and the Turkish War of Independence against the Allies ensued. Outside of a small area surrounding Constantinople, Turkey was controlled by the Nationalist Government and is referred to philatelically as "Turkey in Asia" or "Anatolia".   This eventually led to the Treaty of Lausanne, July 24, 1923, which supplanted the Treaty of Sèvres. From 1920 to 1922, small stocks of old postage stamps were overprinted after which a number of large revenue stamps with intricate designs and without Western lettering were handstamped for validation as postage.  Passer has stated that the study of the stamps of this period "is very difficult, for there are no reliable official records of the actual dates of their issue, or of the length of time for which they were used, and but few genuine letters with clear dates are available."
caption: Anatolia old revenue, handstamped 1921.
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