Eight of the nine people killed in Sunday’s earthquake in in the Turkish-Iranian border region, have been laid to rest today. Four of them were children, the youngest a six-month-old baby.
A 5.9 magnitude earthquake shook the border between Northern Kurdistan (Turkey) and Eastern Kurdistan (Iran) Sunday morning. The greatest destruction occurred on Turkish side of the border in the rural neighborhood of Özpınar (Elbis) in Van’s Başkale district. Nine people died there, and a large part of the houses and stables collapsed.
The bodies of Aydın Tosun, Hüseyin Tosun, Ekrem Tosuntürk, Reis Furat and his children Fatma, Muhammed, Hasret and Hicret (six months old) were brought to Özpınar today in a long convoy from the state hospital in Başkale and laid to rest. There were dramatic scenes at the funeral when Nebahat Furat, who lost her four children and her husband, tried to get into the graves. Several women fainted during the funeral.
The rural neighborhood of Özpınar consisted of 120 households. The houses were simple adobe buildings. Most of the inhabitants have stayed in the Başkale district or in neighbouring villages during the night. In the village, animal carcasses are lying in the collapsed stables. It is estimated that over a thousand farm animals have died in the earthquake. The surviving animals had to spend the night outside in freezing cold.
While Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) has put up some tents in Özpınar, the residents complain that they are not enough and that there is no electricity in the tents. In the meantime, the construction of tents for the animals has also begun.
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