The first 15 years of the Republic of Turkey and the history of postal stamps

Nationalism is the founding ideology of the Turkish Republic. With nationalism, it was aimed to build a nation-state based on the Turkish nation, mostly in the first 15 years of the establishment of the Turkish Republic between 1923-1938. Concrete steps were taken for this purpose in fields such as education, military, economy and communication. The main purpose of the Turkish nation-state was to ensure the permanence of the steps taken and to guarantee that the emerging innovations are communicated to the public and become widespread, mainly in Anatolia. For this purpose, certain developments were observed in communication activities. Postage stamps were among the effective tools in communication activities. The postage stamp was seen as a means of communication reaching every corner of Anatolia and was described as the voice of the state. The dominant ideology of the Republic of Turkey and the innovations were included in the stamps. This study analyzes the postage stamps printed in the National Struggle Period and Republican Period between 1922-1938, and how these stamps contributed to the nation state building process in Turkey.