The concept of ecocriticism, which deals with the relationship between literature and the physical environment, emerged as a literary criticism movement in the early 1990s. This movement aims to reveal the link between literature, nature and culture by analyzing literary works from an environmentalist perspective. The ways in which the physical environment is handled in literary Works and human relations with the physical environment are within the field of study of ecocriticism. Human beings’; communication with nature has gone through three basic phases throughout the historical process. The first of these is the period in which nature was considered superior, and natüre and its elements were ascribed sanctity and even divinity. The second is the period in which humanity’s power to intervene in nature increased with the discovery of fire and the cultivation of iron and soil. In this process, man and nature are equal in the face of life. Human relations with nature were controlled by certain taboos. The third is the period after the Industrial Revolution, when man is considered superior to nature. In this period, man exploited nature unconsciously and almost drove it to extinction. In this study, the myths of the Turkic world are discussed with an ecocritical approach. The destruction of nature, one of today’s biggest problems, and the negative effects of harming nature on human beings are evaluated with an ecocritical approach from the perspective of folk beliefs. Sampling, analysis and classification methods are utilized in the study.

ecofolklore, ecocriticism, oral narrative, myth.