Blue Anatolianism against Ancient Greek culture in the works of the Fisherman of Halicarnassus

Halikarnas Balıkçısı (The Fisherman of Halicarnassus) embraced an understanding of identity, mythology and humanism by intertwining cultural history with geography. These elements, as founding elements related to geography, were explored in his intellectual writings in the form of opposition to Ancient Greek and the West, and were aestheticized in fictional works as a literary discourse. This study begins with a textual analysis, focusing on Halikarnas Balıkçısı's essays and fictional works, including novels and short stories, from both thematic and aesthetic perspectives. It has been observed that the author, who used geography as a source in his search for a cultural origin, highlighted the differences between Ancient Greek and Anatolia and the superiority of Anatolia over Ancient Greek, particularly in his intellectual works. This notion of superiority emphasized that the people living in Anatolia should culturally embrace the heritage of all the civilizations that have lived there, while also trying to prove to the West that their true cultural roots originated in Anatolia. The effort to reconcile these contrasting cultural elements led to the author experiencing contradictions, especially in his historical fiction. The search for cultural origins clearly identifies the heritage of the Ancient Age with Anatolia in his essays. In his fictional works, these cultural elements are depicted through geography, particularly through characters and place elements.