Aylan Kurdi: funeral
held for Syrian boy who drowned off Turkey
The
three-year-old Syrian boy whose death galvanized public opinion and put
pressure on European governments to tackle the continent’s refugee crisis has
been buried in the town of Kobani alongside his mother and brother.
The
body of Aylan Kurdi, who drowned along with his mother Rehan and his
five-year-old brother Ghalib, washed up on a beach not far from the Turkish
resort town of Bodrum on Wednesday. Photographs showed him lying face down in
the surf, wearing a bright-red T-shirt and shorts.
Aylan’s
father, Abdullah, who survived the capsizing that killed his family, wept as
the bodies were buried in the predominantly Kurdish Syrian border town.
Speaking at the crossing with Turkey, he said he hoped the death of his family
would encourage Arab states to help Syrian refugees.
“I
want from Arab governments, not European countries, to see my children, and
because of them to help people,” he said in footage posted online by a local
radio station.
The
bodies were flown to a town near Turkey’s border with Syria, from where police
escorted funeral vehicles to Suruç and across the border into Kobani.
Turkish
MPs accompanied Abdullah Kurdi to Kobani, the scene of fierce fighting between
Islamic State insurgents and Kurdish forces earlier this year. Journalists and
well-wishers were stopped at a checkpoint about two miles from the border.
The
bodies of Aylan, Ghalib and Rehan were found on Wednesday after the small
rubber boat they were travelling in capsized. They were among 12 refugees who
drowned off Bodrum that day.
Unlike
other Syrians heading for Europe, the Kurdi family had lived in Turkey for
three years before deciding to head to Canada, where Abdullah’s sister lives.
Abdullah
said the boat in which the family had been travelling had started taking in
water about 500 meters from the shore and that, despite his best efforts, he
had not been able to hold on to his wife and two sons. “I was holding my wife’s
hand,” he told the Turkish news agency Dogan. “But my children slipped through
my hands. It was dark and everyone was screaming.”
Structure of
the Lead:
WHO-Aylan Kurdi
WHEN- not given
WHAT-the Syrian
three-year-old came to be washed up dead on a beach
WHY-not given
WHERE-in Turkey
HOW- not given
Keywords:
1. Galvanize
通電
2. Resort
渡假勝地
3. Predominantly
主要
4. Escort
護送
5. Insurgents
叛亂分子
