Pages

Sunday, April 22, 2018

Turkey: Anıtkabir in Ankara

Last Saturday I got two postcards: one from Turkey and one from Liechtenstein.

The card from Turkey shows Anıtkabir in Ankara. Anıtkabir is the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey. It was built between 1944 and 1953 and also includes a museum and the final resting place of Ismet Inönü, the second President of Turkey.


Stamps:
Centenary of the Victory in Kut (from set of two) (issued 29-04-2016)
The Siege of Kut Al Amara took place between the 7th December 1915 and the 29th April 1916, when a British-Indian garrison was besieged by the Ottoman Army in the town of Kut in modern day Iraq. The siege happened, as Allied troops had to retreat after the Battle of Ctesiphon and as General Townshend decided to stay in Kut instead of moving forward to Basra. The Ottoman army was supported by the German general and military historian Baron von der Goltz. After some efforts to relieve the city had failed, the Allied surrendered after 147 days of siege. The surviving soldiers became prisoners and were forced to march to Aleppo. The British went back on the offensive in December 1916 and retook Kut on the 23rd February 1917.
94th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey (from set of four) (issued 29-10-2017)
Centenary of the Liberation of Van (issued 02-04-2018)
In 1915 the city of Van was one of the few places where Armenians with the support of the Imperial Russian Army fought against the Ottoman Empire's armed forces during the Armenian Genocide. The city was afterwards under Armenian control. The Russian Revolution of 1917 changed the situation in the region. In April 1918 the Ottoman Army started to attack again and on 6th April Van was again under Ottoman control.
Centenary of the Liberation of Erzurum (issued 12-03-2018)
Erzurum was captured by the Russian Army in February 1916. It returned to Ottoman control just in March 1918 after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed.


Thank You very much Steve!

No comments:

Post a Comment