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
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“A demanding stranger arrived one morning in a small town and asked a boy on the sidewalk of the main street, “Boy, where’s the post office?”
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—William Harmon (b. 1938)
“The city of Washington is in some respects self-contained, and it is easy there to forget what the rest of the United States is thinking about. I count it a fortunate circumstance that almost all the windows of the White House and its offices open upon unoccupied spaces that stretch to the banks of the Potomac ... and that as I sit there I can constantly forget Washington and remember the United States.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“An empire is an immense egotism.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)