Laid to rest, the young brothers whose deaths shook the world
WRAPPED in a white sheet, Abdullah Kurdi cradles the tiny body of his dead boy.
Pain etched on his face, he lowers his son into the dry, red ground of the country he died fleeing from.
These were the emotional scenes in Syria yesterday as Mr Kurdi bid farewell to three year- old Aylan, his brother Galip, five, and the boys’ 35-year- old mother, Rehan.
They were laid to rest just 48 hours after their bodies washed up on a beach in Turkey.
The three drowned after their tiny boat capsized in the Mediterranean as they tried to make it to Greece on their way to start a new life.
The devastating image of little Aylan, lying face down in the surf wearing shorts and a bright red T- shirt, has come to symbolise the human horror of the refugee crisis.
Mr Kurdi was also on the boat, but could not save his family.
As he returned to the war-torn border town of Kobane to bury them, he called on Arab governments to do more to help refugees. It emerged that he had already lost 11 other relatives, who were slaughtered by Islamic State militants in Kobane.
Mr Kurdi fled the fighting with his family last year – paying people smugglers £2,900 to get them from Turkey to Greece. But he has since abandoned his plans for a new life, saying he could not face travelling to Europe without his wife and sons.
‘He only wanted to go to Europe for the sake of his children,’ said Suleiman Kurdi, an uncle of the grieving father. ‘Now that they’re dead, he wants to stay here in Kobane next to them.’
The bodies of Mr Kurdi’s wife and sons were flown to the Turkey/Syria border, from where police-protected funeral vehicles made their way to Kobane.
The father wept as he said his final goodbyes to his family, before their bodies were placed in three wooden coffins.
A crowd of mourners gathered around as the three were laid in the dry, bare earth of the Martyrs Cemetery.
Clouds of dust rose as dirt was shovelled over the graves. Prayers were said
and Mr Kurdi, who once worked as a barber before selling the family’s belongings in a bid to fund their new life, gave a speech. Through tears, he said: ‘As a father who lost his children, I want nothing for myself from this world. All I want is that this tragedy in Syria immediately ends and peace again reigns.’
Kobane has been the scene of intense fighting between Islamic State insurgents and Kurdish forces. Earlier this year, IS gunmen returned just months after they were driven out in a bloody battle hailed as a breakthrough for Kurdish fighters backed by US air power. Jihadis went from house to house, butchering those inside, after using suicide bombers to penetrate defences in an attack that left at least 30 dead, including a baby.
Among those killed were 11 members of Mr Kurdi’s family including some of the boys’ second cousins and their great-aunt.
Local journalist Mustafa Ebdi, who attended the funeral, said: ‘Everyone was very sad and crying.’ He described Mr Kurdi as looking ‘broken and numb’ as he addressed the gathering of hundreds.
‘I don’t blame anyone else for this, I just blame myself,’ Mr Kurdi told the mourners.
‘I will have to pay the price for this the rest of my life.’