São Paulo – Two commemorative stamps issued this year celebrate the good diplomatic relations between Brazil and the Arab countries. One of them shows Abu Simbel temple, built at the request of Ramses II, in Aswan, in southern Egypt, and the other shows the city of Maalula, in Syria, alongside an image of the Christ the Redeemer, in Rio de Janeiro.
According to Ahmed Darwish, the ambassador of Egypt in Brasília, the initiative for the release of the stamp was taken one year ago, when he got in contact with the Correios, the Brazilian postal services, who agreed to issue the commemorative stamp.
“The stamp shows the important of diplomatic relations between Brazil and Egypt," said Darwish. According to him, the date of release of the stamp coincided with the Egyptian national day, July 22. The ambassador recalled that both countries have had relations since 1924 and that several agreements have been signed between them, as well as having promoted several visits by authorities on both sides.
The edition of the Egyptian stamp should have 300,000 prints and may be found at postal agencies up to late 2013.
The stamp with images of Maalula and Christ the Redeemer was issued in June at the initiative of a Syrian executive who worked as a director at the Correios and of the embassy of the Arab country to Brazil.
“I wanted to make a stamp to represent the friendship between both nations," explained Ghassan Obeid, the charge d’affaires of the embassy of Syria to Brasília. Obeid explains that the images selected for the stamp show the proximity between both countries, as Christ the Redeemer is globally famous as heritage of Brazil, and Maalula is the only city in the world in which Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ, is still spoken.
Apart from the commemorative stamps for Egypt and Syria, the Correios have already issued three stamps in honour of Lebanon. The first was in 2003 and celebrated diplomatic and cultural relations between the country and Brazil. The second, in 2005, was a special edition in celebration of Lebanese immigration to Brazil, and the third, in 2009, recalled that Beirut was the world book capital that year, and showed a picture of the city and of author Gilbran Khalil Gilbran, one of the main literary icons of that country.
The stamps in honour of Egypt and Syria are part of a series called "Diplomatic Relations", established after the celebration of the 200 years of the arrival of the Royal Family in Brazil, in 1808, when a commemorative stamp was created, calling the attention of several ambassadors, who asked the Correios to release stamps in partnership with their countries.
"This series aims at uniting people and nations behind the same objectives," said Maria de Lourdes Fonseca, head of the Stamp and Product department at the Correios. She explains that the request for a stamp to be released in honour of any country should be approved by the Brazilian Foreign Office.
Apart from that, the choice of images is made by both nations. "It took us three years working in partnership with Syria," explained Maria de Lourdes regarding the pictures of the cities included in the stamp.
According to the executive at the Correios, Bahrain has also shown interest in issuing a stamp in partnership with Brazil. Now, Correios are awaiting a formal request from the Middle Eastern country.
But it is not just Brazil that honours the countries with which it has relations. The country is celebrated in the same way all around the world, with landscapes shown on stamps in France, China, Japan, Iran, Portugal, the Netherlands, South Korea and countries in South America.
*Translated by Mark Ament
