The association's president Esma Halepovic-Djecevic said that it was the association that had motivated and coordinated this valuable cultural project. This is the first Turkish translation of that children's novel in Turkish and it was translated by Zinnur Ameti.
The project received support from the Turkish Embassy in Zagreb to establish contact with the "Kalem" literature agency which in turn engaged the Nesin Yayincilik publishing house. Part of the costs of the translation were covered by the Croatian-Turkish association and the publisher covering the rest.
The book was exhibited at the 33rd Istanbul Book Fair in mid-November.
The association intends to donate copies of the book to Croatian libraries particularly in towns that have some connection to its author Ivana Brlic-Mazuranic who is sometimes referred to as Croatia's Hans Christian Andersen.
The book tells the story of a young boy "little up to your elbow and as happy as a bird," and it is one of the most published books in Croatia with its first edition being released in 1913. Since being translated for the first time in 1930 in Czech, the story has been translated in several European languages as well as in Chinese, Japanese, Bengali, Hindi, Korean, Persian, Vietnamese, Esperanto and others.