Ottoman Postal History Symposium in Istanbul

Oral Avci, Board Member and Secretary General of the Ottoman Postal History Research Association, shared the following information:

On 4 and 5 November 2026, the International Symposium on Ottoman Postal History will be held in Istanbul, organised by Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf University, in collaboration with the Ottoman Postal History Research Association and the University’s Middle East Research Center (ORDAM).

To our knowledge, this will be the first international academic symposium entirely dedicated to Ottoman postal history. The enthusiasm for this event has exceeded all our expectations. While we initially anticipated 25 to 30 proposals for papers, we ultimately received 56, from which the scientific committee selected 36.

The symposium will bring together academics and researchers from Turkey, Romania, Greece, Albania, and Kosovo, representing a variety of disciplines, including postal history, Ottoman history, diplomacy, economic history, communications, and historical geography. We are also honoured to have the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Türkiye, the PTT (Turkish Post), the Romanian Archives Museum (Romanian Philatelic Museum), and several other cultural and academic institutions.

Following the symposium, all accepted papers will be published in richly illustrated proceedings. Furthermore, we plan to make a free PDF version available to researchers, collectors, libraries, and institutions worldwide to encourage further research on Ottoman and Middle Eastern postal history and to foster international academic collaboration.

Details: oavci60@gmail.com

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