Jakarta –
Cotton and wheat fields in Antakya turned into graveyards after Turkey’s earthquake. A total of 400 priests are on duty in this area.
The mourners were in tears. They said goodbye to the deceased, one of the 1,000 victims of the devastating Turkish earthquake that occurred on Monday (6/2/2023) who was buried in the Antakya cemetery, Hatay province, in southern Turkey.
The tomb was provided impromptu. It used to be a cotton and wheat field.
There are no gravestones and no clear names. Families are simply given a concrete slab with a number to identify the family being buried.
The convoy of mourners accompanied “97”, one of more than 25,000 people who died after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria.
Dozens of sheep grazed a few meters from the tomb. And, that number continues to grow by an order of magnitude more. The road to Antakya was trampled by vans carrying more bodies as the death toll rose every day.
As also on Friday (10/2), a white van arrived at the former cotton field. Inside, there were four corpses in black body bags. Six men lifted each bag, placing it carefully in the recently dug grave.
A man asks them to wait, crying.
“One minute, one minute,” he said. She then repeated only one name, “Emine”.
In a nearby parking lot, the van carrying the body had trouble finding a parking space. The hearses kept coming.
The smell of death was too strong.
One volunteer, in a black suit and blue vest, handed out surgical gloves and masks. Behind folding tables, about 15 people wearing masks waited for relatives to sign death certificates for identified victims.
Near the table, a priest was sitting on the ground. He is from Usak province, 900 kilometers from Hatay. He is one of 400 imams who were brought in from all over Turkey to perform the funeral prayers.
“This is terrible,” said Yusuf Ozcan, with a very tired face.
Ozcan couldn’t even tell how many prayers he had recited.
“A lot,” said the priest, in blue jeans and vest.
Kemal Deniz, 35, a local resident said that in addition to vans, the number of excavators that come continues to increase. Deniz said that the field where the body was buried was a cotton and wheat field.
“From now on, we will wake up every morning looking at this tomb. It’s difficult, but we have no other choice,” he added.
Watch Video “Turkey Earthquake Victim Survives 65 Hours Stuck in Ruins“
(five/five)
