As Turkey Earthquake Deaths Top 46,000, Families Pray For Graves

Turkey: As his bulldozer claws at the rubble of buildings destroyed by this month’s earthquake, operator Akin Bozkurt consoles himself that by finding bodies he gives family members the chance to have a funeral for loved ones and a grave where they can mourn.

“Would you pray to find a dead body?” he asked. “We do…to deliver the body to the family.”

Bozkurt, 42, traveled to Kahramanmaras, the southern Turkish city closest to the epicenter of the devastating quake 12 days ago from his home town of Kayseri, 250 km (155 miles) north, to help with the demolition of destroyed buildings.

“You recover a body from under tons of rubble. Families are waiting with hope…they want to have a burial ceremony. They want a grave,” Bozkrut said.

According to Islamic tradition, the dead should be buried as quickly as possible.

At a cemetery in the city, the thousands of new graves vastly outnumbered those which predated the earthquake, underlining the scale of the catastrophe.

More than 46,000 people in Turkey and Syria were killed by the earthquake and the death count is expected to climb even higher.

Bozkurt said that while he was at work with his bulldozer a father, warming himself at a fire by the ruins of his former home, asked him to find his daughter.

“He told us, ‘please find a piece of her so I would know where her grave is’. This is really tragic.”

“We are trying to find happiness from the saddest moment in their lives.”