Then, why did we lay our father to rest with 15 people?

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

Click to read the article in Turkish

"1.5 months ago, I lost both my father and my 47-year-old elder brother, my dearest, within 3 days. We rejected all friends who wanted to come. We laid him to rest only as his siblings, as if he had no one else in life. No one should say 'Mask-Distance-Cleaning' to me anymore."

"Everytime I see such crowded funerals... Why did we lay my father to rest with 10-15 people?"

"A month ago, we held the funeral of my father, my dearest, with eight people. We were so miserable that it is really hard to tell. We would love to embrace all our loved ones and cry..."

"On Friday, my paternal aunt living in Fatih lost her life and the Fatih Mosque did not allow us because of the pandemic. Enough with this double standard!!! Pro-government ones are free to do everything!!!"

"Dear Health Minister Fahrettin Koca; I swear on my mother, whose deceased body that we took from your hospital and whom I buried with only 10 (let me write it in words: TEN) people to observe the pandemic measures: I will live to ensure that people will not forget your hypocrisy in the below incident and similar others. I swear."

Sn. @drfahrettinkoca hastanenizden cenazesini alıp, Pandemi önlemlerine uymak için sadece 10 (bakın yazıyla da yazayım ON) kişiyle birlikte gömdüğüm ANNEMİN üzerine yemin ederim,hiç kimsenin şu aşağıdaki vb olaylardaki iki yüzlülüğünüzü unutmamaları için yaşayacağım.Andım olsun pic.twitter.com/CpgB2cVwVC

— Yakup Bayrak (@speedyjacobo) February 22, 2021

The above tweets and several others were shared after the crowded funeral of Islamic scholar Muhammed Emin Saraç, who was also the father of Yekta Saraç, the head of Council of Higher Education (YÖK). The funeral was also attended by President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.

Then, let me also ask as a person who lost her father three months ago: Why did we bid farewell to my father with three coffins in a funeral couch and with around 15 people? 

Given that Health Minister Koca has long been urging citizens on his official accounts to "have 30 people at most in funerals and weddings", we have spoken with Dr. Kazım Doğan Eroğulları, a member of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Central Council, and asked him about the possible consequences of this large crowd for public health.

'We are concerned about a new peak'

Dr. Eroğulları says, "These images, unfortunately, have a negative impact on the seriousness of the measures taken against the pandemic. We are concerned that the outbreak will reach a peak."

Eroğulları briefly adds the following:

"We see that the measures taken against the pandemic are not implemented. This virus is apparently not spread during political party congresses, but spread during our congresses. People apparently do not contract the virus during the funerals of people with a political identity, but they contract it during the funerals of ordinary citizens.

"These images undermine the sense of justice in society. They, unfortunately, have a negative impact on the seriousness of the measures taken.

"It is also the case in vaccination. We are now vaccinating our citizens aged over 65. The images of people not in the order of priority being vaccinated on TV make people waiting for their turn to be vaccinated and to get an appointment for vaccination uneasy about the struggle against the pandemic.

'Citizens are confused'

"We see that people do not heed social distancing at funerals. We see that the number of people attending these funerals is well over the maximum number announced by the provincial public health boards.

"We know that it is how the virus spreads. People contract it from their closest proximity and mass events. These images are concerning on our part in that sense. While the institutions and people that must set an example to society must heed this, they give an exact opposite image.

"Citizens get confused when they see the difference between what they are told to do and what the ones who tell them do themselves.

"This, of course, makes it gradually more difficult to struggle against the outbreak. People look at these images, think that 'if nothing happens to them, nothing will happen to me, either' and loosen the measures. And this leads to a weakness in terms of struggle against the pandemic.

* AKP Congress in Adana province

'378 health workers died, it is 40 in Germany'

"On the other side, these images of funerals are making us physicians concerned, too. In terms of both its impact on the spread of the virus and on citizens... They are disturbing us as well. We have lost several healthcare workers due to wrong decisions and practices.

"The number of healthcare workers who have so far lost their lives is around 378, over 100 of whom are physicians. For instance, in Germany, around 40 healthcare workers have lost their lives, 3-4 of them are physicians.

"The burden of the pandemic is on our shoulders. The leaves of healthcare workers were suspended, so were their resignations. We said that 'health workers were only free to die.' We are concerned that the outbreak will peak. We call on all institutions and people to abide by the decisions taken to struggle against the outbreak."

3 coffins in the same funeral coach

When I read the complaints and reproaches on social media, I think of my father, who lost his life three months ago today, just as I think of our duties that we could not fulfill after his passing.

Someone asks on social media, "Everytime I see such crowded funerals... Why did we lay my father to rest with 10-15 people?"

I ask the same question with the same feelings: When my father lost his life three months ago on November 22, why couldn't we perform the rituals that we were required to do? Why wasn't our house full of people? Why did we lay my father Erol Özbek, the most social person that I had known and had friends from every age and background, with around 15 people?

The deceased body of my father was washed quickly and my elder brother, his son, could not participate in this ritual because he, coming from abroad, could barely make it to the funeral.

While we were planning to bid farewell to my father following the mid-afternoon prayer, we were told that we could not keep the funeral waiting due to "pandemic rules" and we left the house in an haste. When we went to the Küçükçekmece Funeral Directorate, it was an utter chaos, a mess... They put three coffins in a single funeral coach and we followed it.

When we started asking one another, "Which mosque will we go to, which one is the closest to the cemetery," we learned that going to the mosque was forbidden as well; we headed straight to the cemetery.

When we got there, we were, this time, asking, "For whom were the prayers recited, is it our turn?" The imam recited prayers for all three coffins separately. That was how we bid farewell to my father...

Our small nuclear family of three observed all measures in the name of public health, of course. All our efforts were to ensure that we did not harm our loved ones and that we protected public health. The remains of these not-fully-performed rituals will perhaps prevail in the future...

Gone is gone, unfortunately; there is nothing to do about it. But, as Dr. Eroğulları has also said, how will they deal with the undermined sense of justice and rage of us, the ones left behind? (AÖ/SD)