Turkey in Asia 1922 Foreign Rate Ankara & Ottoman Stamps Mixed Franking Cover

Description

A fragile, but extremely rare, 1922 Turkey foreign letter rate cover to U.S.A. . . .
Mixed Franking
with both
Ankara
and
Ottoman
Turkish government stamps
Combined postage totals 7½ gurush (the Turkish foreign letter rate in effect from 10 June 1921)
Scott catalogs Ottoman Government stamps as "Turkey" and
Ankara Government stamps as "Turkey in Asia - Anatolia."
All stamps received a black bilingual cancel in Sivas on March 20, 1922, which reads:
"
٣
/
سيوس
/
.
20-3-922 * ۳۳۸-۳-۲۰
/
3
/
SIVAS
"
On front of the envelope is an Ottoman 5 gurush fiscal stamp overprinted by the
Ankara Government with "Osmanli Postalari 1921" to validate it for postage.
On back are five 20 para Ottoman stamps, totaling 100 para (40 para equal
one gurush). The 100 para in Ottoman stamps is another 2½ gurush postage.
Total postage is 7½ gurush, the single letter foreign (international) rate.
All stamps were canceled the same day at the place of mailing, Sivas,
where the stamps of both Turkish governments (Ottoman and Ankara)
were available for international use at that Ankara government post office.
On the back is a faint March 25, 1922 bilingual cancel from Samsun reading:
"
صامسون
/
.
[2]
5-3-922 * ۳۳۸-
[] /
SAMSOUN
"
In Samsun, the Ankara Government examined the cover and stamped it with its
black oval censor markings in Ottoman Turkish (which is read right to left) with
its translation in English, the original Turkish, and Modern Turkish as follows:
The top part
:
Samsun Censor Division (Department)
سانسور دائرةس صامسون
SAMSUN SANSÜR DAIRESI/DAİRE
Middle part
:
English Section
شعبة س إنكليزي
BÖLÜNME [İNGILIZCE]
1921
١٣٣٧
[1338 in the Turkish Rumi Calendar = 1921]
Note: Ankara Government's Constitution adapted 20 Jan 1921.
Bottom part
:
Examined by Censor
معاينه ـنـچــث ر
MUAYENE/MUAYEŞE SANSÜR
After being read by the English Section of the Ankara Government's censors,
the cover was forwarded to Istanbul (Ottoman Government in Constantinople)
and back-stamped for passage into the international mails:
"
STAMBOUL / 4- AVR 1922 / DEPART "
The correct international rate on this cover was verified from the on-line exhibit of the Academy of Turkish Philately' (the turkfilateliakademisi organization) entitled, “Turkish Grand National Assembly Government Postal History 1920-1923.” The exhibit notes: "Very few items are known as sent from Anatolia to foreign countries during the Ankara Government period." The Academy of Turkish Philately exhibit includes pictures of a cover for each
domestic
rate in use, but with the rarity of international covers, only four of the eight possible different
foreign
rate covers were shown. Actual covers sent through the international mails are extremely rare, and despite its condition, this cover is one of those.
The cover originates from the Sivas Unit of the American Committee for Relief in the Near East (now called the Near East Foundation). Founded in 1915 in response to Ambassador Henry Morgenthau Sr.'s reports of Ottoman governmental atrocities against Ottoman Armenians, it is the United States' oldest nonsectarian international development organization and the second American humanitarian organization to be chartered by an Act of Congress. The American Red Cross was the first. In the first 2-3 years from its founding, the American Committee for Relief in the Near East raised over million (with specific instructions the money not be spent on administration, but only on direct relief). Many Americans volunteered to go to Anatolia to work in providing famine relief. At the time, Sivas was a center of grain production in Central Turkey.
Today, the people of Turkey cannot read the old Ottoman Turkish script. In 1928, as one of Atatürk's Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with a Latin alphabet (Modern Turkish). Today's online translation apps, like Google or Microsoft, are not equipped to translate Ottoman Turkish and only may recognize the bulk of its characters as Arabic or Persian. And with those languages, when more than one character is entered into an on-line translator, it is automatically combined with the preceding character(s) according to the rules of the language (Arabic or Persian) thought to be being read and not according to the rules of Ottoman Turkish grammar. In translating the censor markings, the middle part that reads
شعبة س إنكليزي
readily translated into "English Section," but did not make sense in the context of a censor marking until we realized that the letter was probably written in English and sent back home to the U.S.A. to family from a volunteer working in Sivas. Thus, the cover had to wait in Samsun for someone who read English to censor it. The exhibit mentioned above from the Academy of Turkish Philately pictures a 1921 postcard sent at the foreign postcard rate to Massachusetts with the "English Section" censor marking hand-stamped in purple, not black like here.
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