Rémi Trieau (in Iskenderun)
While the toll already stands at more than 12,873 dead in Turkey, the bodies are beginning to line up in car parks in the south of the country, ravaged by two powerful earthquakes. Some anonymous people end up in mass graves, others are entitled to a dignified funeral in overflowing cemeteries, organized by bruised survivors.
Are there still lives to be saved under the rubble in Turkey and Syria? Three days after the double earthquake, rescuers continue to search the rubble day and night. There are now more than 16,000 dead, including nearly 13,000 in Turkey alone. In the province of Antioch, the bodies of the victims clump together. In a small cemetery on the heights of Iskenderun, Mohamed welcomes the families of the victims of the earthquake. “We are doing everything we can. This pain is ours, it is that of our country. The pain knows no language, no religion. It is the same for everyone”, he confides sadly .
Hundreds of funerals
This imam from western Turkey was mobilized to cope with the staggering number of burials. The cemetery driveway is full of vehicles carrying bodies. Some lie on the ground in simple blankets. “Really, I don’t know how many funerals we celebrated, maybe between 300 and 400. It’s really very painful. Earlier, we buried a family of fifteen, grandparents, little ones -children. A whole family”, says Mohamed. On a bench, a woman laments. In this cemetery, his grief echoes the pain of an entire people.