Abstract
Bir Çocuğun Gözünden Balkan Dramı
With the Ottoman-Russian War (1877-1878), known as the 93 War, a fire surrounded
the Balkan lands. The wars that spread rapidly in the region continued until the end of
the First World War. In this process, the Balkan countries broke away from the Ottoman
Empire one by one and declared their independence. Bulgaria, one of these countries,
declared its independence in 1908 and left the Ottoman Empire. Like other European states, Bulgarians leaft the Ottoman Empire and established a new state by centering
their national identity. However, while doing this, they resorted to ways of isolating other
minorities, especially Muslim Turks. This isolation turned into a systematic assimilation
after World War II and in the 1980s. Trying to implement its own ethnic cleansing,
Bulgaria limited the freedoms of other minorities, especially Muslims and Turks, by
interfering in their daily lives. Bulgarians pressured them to change their culture,
religion or even their names. This situation in the history of Bulgaria has been the subject
of history and sociology as well as literature and even children's literature. Romanianborn researcher and academician Dr. Hristo Slavov Kyuchukov is also a children's
literature writer. Kyuchukov, who spent his childhood and youth in Bulgaria, personally
experienced the Bulgarian persecution in the 1980s and wanted to convey his
experiences through the eyes of a child through literature. The author strikingly
expressed those years with both fictional integrity and illustrations in his book My Name
was Hussein, which he wrote for children. It is important that the Bulgarian persecution
is the subject of children's literature and that those years are conveyed through the eyes
of a child. My name was Hussein, which is the subject of the study, will be evaluated in
terms of subject and content on a historical basis. In the study document analysis
technique was used as one of the qualitative research methods.
Keywords
Children's Literature, Bulgarian persecution, My Name was Hussein