Early Stamps of the Syrian Region

Post offices were maintained in Beirut by several European powers from the late nineteenth century to World War I and stamps of the appropriate Levantine period were used. In 1905 – 1906 during temporary shortage of the normal issues, both France and Britain produced one-piastre provisional stamps, which were limited to use in Beirut. In 1909 the Russian post office adopted a series overprinted ‘Beyrouth’ in French, but reverted to the Russian Levant general series the following year.

French forces occupied Rouard Island, off the coast of Syria, in January 1916 and various French stamps, suitably overprinted, were introduced that year. The stamps up to 40c were issued without a further surcharge, but higher denominations were surcharged for use on letter mail. After World War I the island was transferred to the territory of the Alaouites.

The district of Asia Minor on the borders of Syria and Turkey was occupied by French troops at the end of World War I. Various Turkish postage and fiscal stamps of 1901 – 1917 were overprinted ‘Cilicie’ in block letters or cursive script and released between March and May 1919. Subsequently stamps were overprinted to denote ‘French Military Occupation’.

Contemporary French stamps were overprinted O.M.F. (Occupation Militaire Francaise) or T.E.O. (Territoires Ennimis Occupes – Occupied Enemy Territory) with values surcharged in Turkish currency. The 10c of the former French Levant was overprinted T.E.O. and surcharged 20 paras at Beirut in 1920. Examples are known with the ‘s’ of ‘paras’ inverted. Cilicia was returned to Turkey in 1921 and distinctive stamps withdrawn.

French and French Levantine stamps overprinted T.E.O. or O.M.F. were issued in Syria in 1919 – 1920, surcharged in Egyptian currency (milliemes and piastres) or Syrian currency (centiemes and piastres). The last stamp issued under the military occupation was the 2.50 piastres.

In 1923 France received a mandate from the League of Nations over Syria and the area then known as Great Lebanon. Various French stamps overprinted ‘Syrie – Grand Liban’ were issued between September and December 1923 and were withdrawn when separate issues were adopted for each territory at the beginning of 1924.