Austria post in Turkey year 1883 2 sld. MNH stamp

Austria post in Turkey year 1883 2 sld. MNH stamp

Austria did operate post offices in various cities within the Ottoman Empire during the 19th and early 20th centuries. These offices used regular Austrian postage stamps rather than any special issues.

Some key details:

• In 1867, Austria was granted the right to open post offices in the Ottoman Empire under the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
• Austrian post offices operated in cities like Constantinople (Istanbul), Smyrna (Izmir), Beirut, Jaffa and others until around 1914.
• These overseas Austrian offices used the same definitive postage stamps that were current in Austria at the time.
• The stamps did not have any overprints or special markings indicating their use in the Turkish offices.
• Mail from these Austrian foreign offices often received cancellation markings in Turkish cities to indicate the origin.
• Covers and postal history items from the Austrian Levant offices are prized by collectors of Austrian philately and Ottoman postal history.

So in summary, while Austria maintained post offices on Ottoman territory for several decades, they utilized the regular stamp issues from Vienna rather than producing any locally overprinted or special stamps specifically for usage in Turkey. Collectors have to identify covers with Turkish town cancellations to confirm their Levant origins.