The field was a cemetery that had been abandoned before the February 6 earthquakes in southern Turkey and northern Syria. Mass graves, vast ditches built to bury hundreds of earthquake victims, were now there. Men were racing to dump remains in shrouds or body bags from vehicles and convey them to others digging ditches for 100 to 130 individuals a day. Two men carried some bodies. Many were little, taken to the trenches by men with shocked faces.
Jihad Ahmed al-Ibrahimi, 21, collected cement breezeblocks to line ditches. Before filling the ditches, marble slabs are placed over the bodies atop breezeblocks. He came daily to volunteer for funerals. He told reporters, “I reside in the camps in Aazaz, myself and my family are displaced.” Because they lived in tents, they suffered little earthquake damage. However, we were frightened. We wondered how much scarier it would have been for city dwellers. Because cities will take the most harm, we worried about our city dwellers. “We heard that Jandaris had the most damage, so me and around 30 or 40 other guys come out here every morning to volunteer and help the community bury their deceased in this cemetery.” Al-Ibrahimi said the men use their own cars to drive 40km (25 miles) to Jandaris in the morning and return to Aazaz at night, a difficult undertaking in an area where 12 years of conflict have destroyed infrastructure and resources, a scenario made worse by the earthquakes. As much as feasible, graves are marked with the names of the deceased.
“We bury bodies and say funeral prayers,” al-Ibrahimi remarked. We work for God, not money. “I’m happy that most of my relatives and close friends were already relocated and living in tent camps. But we’re here, doing this job because these folks who perished here are our family too, that’s why we came out here to help.”
