1922 "Turkey In Asia" / Ottoman Turkey Cover / Need A Little Help

Here is a 1922 international cover sent to the United States from the Sivas Unit of the American Committee for Relief in the Near East. The stamp on the front is a "Turkey in Asia" stamp of the Nationalist (Ankara) Government, while the stamps on the back are Ottoman Turkey (the Istanbul Government). All stamps have a March 20, 1922 Sivas cancel. On the back are Istanbul transit cancels dated April 4, 1922.

Can anyone help in translating the black oval marking on the front of the cover. The second scan is a clearer image. I do not read Turkish Arabic. The closest thing I can get out of translate.google are Arabic characters for Ankara starting at the right of the middle portion, but that maybe wishful thinking.

For what it's worth, the on-line archives of the Library of Congress have a 550+ page 1907 publication, "Ottoman-Turkish / Conversation-Grammar" by V.H. Hagopian. This book has extensive appendices identifying in Turkish Arabic and English the governmental structure of the Ottoman Government and much other useful information of the times. When I hand-write into translate.google similar looking words (or modify words) in that book, nothing looks the same. And, of course, pre-war Turkey was not the same as post war.

Need some expert postmark folks on this one!

I found several examples of covers in an old auction catalog - mostly black & white pic - of turkey in asia & turkey stamps on same cover. Arabic writing, so unclear as to whether final destination was outside Ottoman empire...

I can find nothing of assistance.
With your approval I can forward on the request to a member of ONEPS.

To rod222: Just for the sake of argument, why not? I would appreciate the response. More importantly, can you ask them about the rates used. The Ankara Government stamp is 5 piastres while the Istanbul Government stamps on the back total 100 paras (with 40 paras to the piastre), that's 2 1/2 piastres. Was the international rate 2 1/2 piastres? As all stamps are cancelled in Sivas on the same date, did the payment for 5 piastre stamp include the 2 1/2 piastres international rate covered by the Istanbul stamps applied to the back, or did the sender pay the full 7 1/2 piastres on the cover?

Looks like a type of Censor handstamp..

To: perf12
Yes, it is a censor marking. The question is whose, the Nationalist (Ankara) government, the Ottoman (Istanbul) government or one of the foreign concessionaires?

abctoo,
email sent.

My guess is Nationalist - Ataturk side censorship

Both the 5 piastre overprinted stamp and the censor mark contain the year #1633;#1635;#1635;#1639; (1337) which is the Rumi calendar equivalent of 1921 Gregorian. 1921 is consistent with the date indicated in Scotts catalogue. In January, 1921, the Ankara Parliament ratified the first Turkish constitution. Those correlations certainly suggest it is a Nationalist's censor marking. Anybody know anything definitive?

Sorry about the last reply. The glibberish, "#1633,#1635,#1635,#1639" shown in the posting was input in Arabic characters meaning "1337" and somehow did not properly transfer. I am new to the "stamp community." Is this normal, or how do I fix my input issues?

The site was not designed to use Unicode and it is apparently too late to convert it. So it does not support most non-roman characters.

You can show the characters with an image.

To hy-brasil: Thanks for the tip. I will use it when I post non-Roman characters from other languages (and perhaps for Romantic words that use diacritical markings). P.S. I note language is important to you. You use the Portuguese name for the country, not its English version of Brazil. That's realistic.

abctoo
Machinations are at work.
(Names deleted for privacy)
Subscribe to this thread, so as to be emailed when a response is current.

To: rod222
Thanks. Will confirm the response when you post it. Again, I really would like to know about the rates used on the cover and whether the 100 paras (2 1/2 piasters) of Istanbul government stamps were included in the price of the 5 piasters overprinted stamp or paid in addition to it.

Understood,
now out of my hands, awaiting response.
Your request was passed verbatim, whether the second receiver is aware of that, I have no way of knowing.

abctoo
Your query published in "The Levant"

I'll let you know if answered.