German officer Von Schweinitz's work describing Turkey in 1904-1905: "Asia Minor on Horseback", Tells Us About Us Today

In 1904-1905, Hans-Hermann Graf Von Schweinitz, a German naval officer, took his wife with him on a trip to Asia Minor (Anatolia) starting from Istanbul. Interestingly, during the Ottoman period, there were officers from Europe who made expeditions in Ottoman lands. They share their impressions. For example, the book "Field Marshal H. Von Moltke, Turkey Letters", which reflects the period when the famous German Field Marshal Moltke was in Turkish territory as a young officer, is a famous and valuable work.

Probably these officers, like today's military attachés, traveled around these lands on an 'official' mission and carried out activities to serve the interests of their countries. In this context, their human intelligence and geographical investigations have filled an important gap in terms of comprehending and understanding our own past better, even through the eyes of a foreigner, especially for us Turks who live in this geography today, such as publishing their admirable reflections in books when they return to their own countries. For this reason, many books written by foreign state officials are also important for us Turks. When we look at old photographs of our geography 100-150 years ago, you will see that almost all of the people who took them were foreigners. Again, you will not come across such detailed descriptions in works written by Turks. Therefore, although it may not be meaningful for today, we can find the chance to relearn and discover many things from the past to the present through 'foreign eyes'.

In this sense, I find the trip of German naval officer Von Schweinitz, who followed the route Istanbul-Bursa-Eskişehir-Kütahya, Afyonkarahisar-Konya-Lakes Region-Niğde-Kayseri-Nevşehir-Kırşehir-Yozgat-Ankara with his wife and returned to Istanbul important. Von Schweinitz, who later immortalized this trip by writing a book titled 'Anatolia on Horseback', serves to introduce us to the past life of the route in question and our people living at that time in his work, which includes this travel memoir he wrote for other purposes.

Although the author does not say it directly in his work titled 'Anatolia on Horseback', the purpose of the trip was to learn the views of the people in the places visited on Germany and other western states, to introduce the places visited in every aspect for German investors who were planned to come to Anatolia, and to investigate investment opportunities for Germany. The fact that he presented his report to the Berlin branch of the German Colonial Society on his return reinforces this view.

At the time, it was a common practice for Europeans to make such seemingly innocent trips, financed by their own governments, to learn about the internal dynamics of the Ottoman Empire. Fred Burnaby's book "Traveling Anatolia on Horseback" was written in this manner. This book, too, was written as a result of a trip undertaken on behalf of the British Government of the time for the purpose of 'research'. Before the outbreak of the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-1878 (but during a period of tension when it was expected to break out), this trip was organized in 1876 with the aim of contacting Ottoman statesmen, soldiers and minorities to find out what the Turkish people thought about the upcoming war and what stage the preparations for the war were at. It was supposedly an intelligence work under the name of a trip.

Before starting the trip, German naval officer Hans-Hermann Graf Von Schweinitz received a decree from the Ottoman Sultan (Abdülhamit II) through the German Embassy in Istanbul, and thanks to this, he was welcomed and hosted with the highest level of interest and attention wherever he went. In the meantime, he shared everything he found interesting during his travels in his notes. For example, he tells in his book that only criminals and wanted people worked in the meerschaum quarries in Eskişehir, that the Ottoman Government did not intervene in these quarries, that there were both German and Russian Consulates in Konya in those years, that commercial life increased with the railway construction reaching Konya in 1904, that 1,200 building permits were issued in Konya in just one year and that the population reached 45,000.

He talks about the efforts of the Ottoman government to irrigate the Konya Plain by bringing European engineers to bring the water of the lakes region down to the Konya Plain. He describes the lakes region and its beauties at that time so beautifully that even today, when the reader reads these lines, he has the feeling of 'I should go there, what beautiful places they were', he feels like going there. I also find it valuable that he tells us that there was a significant Greek population living in the settlements between Konya and Kayseri at that time, that there were villages whose population consisted only of Greeks, that in a Greek village where they stayed, the harnesses of their horses disappeared between the eyebrows and the eyes, and that it would be unthinkable for this to happen in a Turkish village, in terms of showing the characteristic and high culture that we Turks have. Maybe if you ask "Is it like this today?", I can only say don't ask.

Our author states that at that time, every foreigner traveling in Anatolia was obliged to take a zaptiyeh with him, and that the government presented this as a security reason, but Europeans thought that the purpose was for the government to control the traveler himself. I would like to express my appreciation that the Istanbul government was able to take such measures for every foreigner. Today, of course, this is not possible. In fact, 'intelligence' facilities have reached a capacity to obtain intelligence far beyond what a person can obtain by traveling and seeing. However, we understand that in the past, especially human intelligence was very valuable for geographies that needed to be 'known'. Otherwise, one would not travel from one side to the other on horseback for the sole purpose of 'traveling, sightseeing'.

When the train arrived in Konya Ereğli, we learn that the local producers dreamed of taking their grain products to Istanbul and selling them, but they could not do so due to the high transportation costs, but the walnut trees in the Taurus Mountains were cut down and sold to Hannover for furniture making, again from the pen of Von Schweinitz, who made this journey and turned it into an immortal work. 

Von Schweinitz tells us that the Greek elements in Niğde and its environs forgot their own language over time, that even church services were conducted in Turkish, but that after the Crimean War they remembered that they were Greeks and that their national feelings were slowly developing, that Greek schools were established everywhere by the Greek community and teachers were brought from Greece, so that Greek began to be spoken everywhere and that nationalism and national belonging developed among the Greeks.

While examining the places he visited, the author does not neglect to refer to the notes of travelers who had visited the region in earlier times. He says that the towns are different from the ones described in those old works and that it is a more prosperous and developed Ottoman geography compared to the past.

While describing Hacıbektaş, he refers to the travel notes of William Francis Ainsworth, a British traveler who came to the region 70 years ago, and explains that at that time people lived in great poverty in filthy ruins, whereas today (1905) there is a hardworking population that continues to work in a prosperous settlement with many new buildings and shops.

He writes that the district of Mucur was mostly a Greek Christian village 70 years ago during the time of the English traveler, that its inhabitants were mostly Muslim, and that Kırşehir was a developed town. He notes that Bor, today a district of Niğde, was a town with a large Greek population and even the director of finance was a Greek.

He points out that the double-headed eagle on the Hittite monuments in Boğazköy was a coat of arms used by both the Seljuks and the German Empire. He notes that the Seljuk Sultan Keykavus I used this motif on the coins he minted in 1217.

He points out that Abdülhamit Khan wanted to spread the railways all over Anatolia and that he had such a public works policy. However, he notes as an interesting note that European states tried to prevent this. Stating that he observed that the government appointed qualified civil servants for the development of Anatolia, he speaks highly of this. He also suggests that German immigrants should be allowed to settle in Anatolia. 

Let us mention this as a footnote here. The Germans somehow pursued a policy of having spheres of influence in Anatolia in those years. It is likely that the need for German population to be resettled at the points deemed appropriate by them is determined as a policy to be followed by the German government. With this emphasis of the author, the Germans' proposal to Enver Pasha to settle German immigrants in the areas 20 km to the right and 20 km to the left of the Baghdad Railway line during the construction of the line, in the context of the declaration of the areas 20 km to the right and 20 km to the left of the line as economic concession zones (unfortunately, this was a general rule granted by the Ottoman Government to all foreign railway construction companies at that time), would not be accepted.

After all, books are not written for nothing. We need to recognize that books like these, especially those written by foreign authors who describe the past and reflect the past periods, are of great value as a whole. Although it is a fact that these travels were made to serve an intelligence purpose, the artifacts left behind, the photographs of the period reflect us. They introduce us to us. 

I wish you to find and read this valuable book...