Aegean Islands (Dodecanese)
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The Dodecanese Islands were civilised in ancient times and played a minor role in the history of Classical Greece, subsequently joining the Roman Empire. They belonged to the Knights of St John 1309-1522 but were then conquered by the Turks and included in the Ottoman Empire. They were seized by Italy in 1912 during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-12, becoming Italian colonies. Britain attempted to conquer the islands during WW2 but without success. After the Italian armistice in 1943, the islands were occupied by German forces. Britain finally occupied them 1945-47. The islands were ceded to Greece in 1947. Turkish stamps were in use up to 1912. On 22 September 1912, there was a general issue of Italian stamps overprinted EGEO. On 1 December 1912, Italian stamps were issued for individual islands with the Italian name of the island overprinted. The islands concerned were Astypalaea (Stampalia), Kalimnos (Calimno), Khalki (Carchi), Karpathos (Scarpanto), Kasos (Caso), Kos (Cos), Leros (Lero), Lipsos (Lipso), Nisyros (Nisiros), Patmos (Patmo), Rhodes (Rodi), Syme (Simi), Telos (Piscopi). In January 1916, Italian stamps without overprint were issued and this continued until 19 May 1929 when a special set was issued for Rhodes. Castelrosso was added to the Dodecanese on 10 August 1920, having been under French occupation since 27 December 1915. Italian stamps overprinted with the island's name were issued on 11 July 1922. On 20 October 1930, the Italian "Ferrucci" set was issued for each island with the name again overprinted. There was also a general issue of the same set with the overprint ISOLE ITALIANE DELL' EGEO. There was a further issue in 1932 for the individual islands but, after that, only Rhodes was given its own stamps. For the rest, the general issues applied. The Germans did not affect stamp issues during their period of occupation. During the British occupation, MEF stamps were used. When Greece took over in 1947, there was an initial issue of Greek stamps overprinted SDD (Dodecanese Military Occupation) before normal issues of Greek stamps began in the same year. The current status of the islands is that they remain part of Greece and continue to use Greek stamps. |
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