Travel Politics Mirroring Anatolia, Asia Minor, and the Greek Islands

Introduction

The Ottoman empire, which ruled over a vast geographical area, attracted more people from abroad through the development of transportation facilities in the last century. Some of these visitors, as travel writers, passed through the Ottoman lands, dropped by many settlements,and interacted with many people. Noting their observations during their journeys, they presented many works, many of which related to travel literature. Coming from different parts of the world, these traveler writers, especially, the Western ones who visited Anatolia strectching within the vast lands of Ottoman Empire, presented works which reflected gaze of West on East and these writers’ Orientalist ideology about Ottoman lands, especially Anatolia and its people. American travel writer Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad which was published in 1869 and describes the places the author visited in Anatolia, and British travel writer Charles Wilkinson’s A Tour Through Asia Minor and the Greek Islands (1803) which tells about Wilkinson’s travels throughout Anatolia and the Greek Islands are significant works reflecting the socio-political approaches of the Unites States of America and the British Empire towards the Middle East, especially Anatolia, the Greek Islands and the people living in this geographical region in the 19^th century. From this perspective, it is important to emphasize the approaches of the two authors’ countries to this geographical region, these authors’ approach to Anatolia, the way they reflect all these in their works and the political and ideological role of their literary works in the context of West’s approach to Wast.