Red shirt and short blue pants…that’s what the child was wearing. He was seen lying face down in the sand scattered on the shore by the coming and going waves of the ocean. His face was towards the ground and his back towards the sky. He seemed calm. Absolute peace, absolutely beyond any kind of commotion, away from any kind of conflict.
On that September morning in 2015, when the picture of a ‘peacefully sleeping’ child from a Turkish beach reached the world, the whole world was in an uproar. There were screams all around. Screams that were shocking to humanity and were an open advertisement of humanity’s plight. These screams were Marcia in the name of the child who was going from Syria to Türkiye with his family in search of a better life, but in the end he got only death.
This body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi was the most delicate burden on the shoulders of humanity, which was actually extremely heavy. So much so that the empires of many dictators got destroyed under it… and look at today’s date, this has been proved true. Aylan’s last breath must have had a role in the ouster of Bashar al-Assad from power.
Aylan, a three-year-old Syrian child who along with his life’s hopes and dreams, got lost somewhere in the waves of the ocean. But his death created a story which is a warning to humanity even today. Kurdi’s family was a resident of Kobani city of Syria. Aylan’s parents, Abdullah and Reyhan, were searching for a better life with their children after a long-running civil war created conditions that displaced millions of people and caused tragedy. As their city was slowly turning into rubble, they saw only one way to betterment, migration… a way to leave Syria and go somewhere else.
Eventually, he decided to go to Türkiye, from where he wanted to try to reach Europe. But this journey was not easy. They didn’t have passports, they didn’t have money. The only help they could get was from human trafficking gangs, who claimed to take such people across the sea by putting them in dangerous boats. On a dark night in September 2015, Abdullah and his family boarded a small rubber boat with 12 other migrants. Aylan and his elder brother, Ghalib, were also with him. Leaving from Bodrum in Türkiye, their target was the island of Kos in Greece, where they had to reach.
But, their boat could not withstand the strong waves of the sea and capsized, Abdullah tried with all his might to save his children, but the extremely cruel waves of the sea separated the entire family. Aylan, Ghalib and their mother Rehan drowned. The next morning, the body of a small child was seen on the Turkish coast. He was wearing a red T-shirt and blue short pants. His face was downwards, as if he was sleeping.
This picture created a stir all over the world. This photo went viral in newspapers and social media. This picture was not just of Aylan, but was the living face of the suffering of millions of migrants who were risking everything to escape war and poverty. Abdullah Kurdi, who lost his wife and two sons, said, “I wanted a better future for my children. But now I have nothing left.” Aylan Kurdi’s story shocks us and questions our civilization. She asks whether in so many years you could create a society where innocent people like me can play freely and live safely.
Today there is an atmosphere of celebration on the streets of Damascus in Syria. Assad, who was the President, has fled the country, which means he too has had to resort to migration. Sunday proved to be a historic day in the history of Syria. The 13-year struggle bore fruit, the dictatorial regime of Bashar al-Assad came to an end, and the pattern of power that had been concentrated in the same family for the last five decades changed. This day not only marks the end of 13 years of devastating war, but is also considered the end of Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year authoritarian rule. Now rebel forces are in control and thousands of people have gathered on the streets of the capital Damascus to celebrate. Who now believe that they are free.
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