Cyprus Bomb Overprint?

Help - has anyone out there ever seen this?

Cyprus SC#222 1963 Freedom from Hunger issue with what looks like an overprint of a V2 rocket or some sort of bomb on it.

I know there was some turmoil in Cyprus in 1963-1964

Any help appreciated!

-p

I can't really give any help, but that's a really interesting overprint. It looks like it was applied before the stamp was cancelled which makes one wonder if it was some kind of "propaganda" or "rebel" sign, depending on which side you were on.

That's part of the "Turkish bombs on Cyprus" cachet.

There has long been tension in Cyprus between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots. In 1963-64, this tension escalated into violence.

During this period, mail passing through the Greek Cypriot postal system was occasionally stamped with the "Turkish bombs on Cyprus" cachet.

Thanks for the info - I knew that someone would know what this was.

Cool cachet! - now I have to find a cover with the whole cachet. Do you know if that cachet is particularly rare/expensive?

Anyway...thank you for the help.

Here are a couple on ebay for $16-$17.

thank you...

-p

I was in Cyprus in 63 and early 64. I was attached to the American Embassy in Nicosia. Most my "mail" primarily of US origin so we rarely if ever saw any local postmarks. I do believe the one responder was correct in that all mail going off th isalnd was cacheted with the bombs. There has alway been a certain amount if tension between the Greek and Turkish populations on the island. In late 63 these tensions turned in open warfare. Then one of the groups planted a bomb at the back door of the Embassy and almost killed one the the US MArine security gurads.. that was when we were told to evacuate all the dependents - military and civilian- to Beirut. Had to pack all the household belongings into containers and truck them to a Famagusta to load on ships for trasit "elsewhere".. mainly back stateside. The almost funny side to this action is that when the Beirut Marine barracks was blown up in the 80s..... all the dependents were evacuated from Lebanon to Cyprus.

Wow! Amazing info. Thank you.

That's really good to find that postmark on a stamp and it's one I haven't yet come across in my collection.

Even now in 2012 the island of Cyprus is still segregated after the Turkish invasion in July 1974 and it's not that many years ago that the UN controlled crossing points started to be opened up allowing more and more people to cross the "green line" to visit the northern occupied areas in compliance with the EU freedom of movement laws.

We've been living in the Republic (south) of Cyprus since March 2004 having emigrated here from the UK.

In the last 12 months or so although both north and south are trying to establish some kind of working relationship, the discovery of gas offshore has raised tensions again so it's a case of 1 step forward and 2 steps back kind of syndrome.

To this day, we cannot have new issues of Turkish Cypriot stamps sent to us by mail in the South - without them being sent via Turkey. The same happens with any mail sent from the South to the North. Any time there are new stamp issues we have to make a special visit and cross the green line at Ledra Street into the occupied area to purchase them personally. Otherwise we run the risk of them going astray as it's not unknown for someone to take umbrage against where the destination of the package is intended. For us, that's close on 170km round trip from our home in Limassol to the north of Nicosia and back.

Shell of Cyprus Stamps

Actually

This slogan was to inform international communities of the bombing of Cyprus by Turkish Jets in 1964
This slogan although scarce is not uncommon online and can be purchased between 10-20 euros
It is available in Black-common; Red- less common; Blue-Extremely rare