anyways, i received a LOT of awesome mail in the meantime, among which is this fantastic surprise that arrived from Bender, a city in the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, or maybe more known to people as Transnistria....oh yeah!! :D
this gem was sent by Herbert from Spain, who had travelled around Eastern Europe and the Middle East and decided to surprise me with some stuff missing in my collection! And you dont really get the chance for someone from here to send you a card, so im more than thankful to him!!
Funny though, when the card arrived i didnt really know who sent it, just made a wrong assumption and in the end even got paranoid, coz of the way my address was written (it was the correct address, but not the way i give it out to people, so I just panicked how could someone know this way of writing it!!) Thank God Herbert messaged me just after that, and the jig-saw fell in place :)
Now, a few words about what's on the card....it shows the Bender Fortress in the city of Bender. The fortress was first built during the reign of Stephen III, to defend the settlement from Tatar raids and later, following the Ottoman occupation, the initial fortifications were developed into a full fortress, and the Ottomans used it to keep the pressure on Moldavia. the issue of Transnistria is a fragile one, as all issues with unrecognized territories/nations are, so i wont be going into details. Just in short words, Transnistria (or Pridnestrovie) is an an unrecognized state which claims the territory to the east of the river Dniester, the city of Bender and its surrounding localities located on the west bank. It declared its independence in 1990, after which (and especially after the War of Transnistria in 1992, it is governed as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. Of course, Moldova obeys to this...
since it is an unrecognized territory, it doesnt have its own stamps, but uses the Moldovan ones...however, the cancellation clearly says 'Tiraspol, which is the capital of Transnistria, and that's what matters, that the card has indeed been sent from Transnistria :D
as for the stamp, it is from a set of 2 stamps issued in 2009, called Winter celebrations.
thank you so much again for the kindness and the thought Herbert!!!
4 comments:
Bender is the Turkish name of the city (in Turkish Bender means port / harbor), first used in 1538, after the Turks conquered it, being imposed by the Tsarist authorities for official use only in the nineteenth century. Moldavians have always called it Bender, as he was known in sec. XII and XIII of the Genoese and as it appears in all Moldavian chronicles.
Congratulations for this postcard, Ana. The truth is, though, that one cannot get a postcard from Tiraspol using the Transnistrian post, because there only the Moldavian post operates. For a real Transnistrian cancellation the postcard ought to be sent from the only Transnistrian post office in Bender that accepts Transnistrian stamps. I was just lucky to get these two: http://peterslettercollection.blogspot.com/2011/09/transnistria.html
http://www.vijesti.me/caffe/stampedo-pijaci-video-49723
Vidi šta se radi u Tiraspolu :D
@bardamu: thank you for these additional information! Im always pleased to read more than what I can google only :)
@KSzP: yup, I know...I have your post as a reference :) However, this is much more than I would have ever expected, esp since it is a gift and hence is much more dear to me...and im working on getting one with the actual stamps too :)
@Riči....jadnički....baš mi pade žao za one starije babe što sam videla...a vidiš, ima ipak mesta za sve na kraju...osim ako nije bitno dal ti tezga prva il druga s leva :)
Bitno da smo ja i ti ugovorili fini biznis u vezi s ovim ;)
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