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A boy in a red shirt and blue pants. It seems like he’s just sleeping. The image of the dead Alan (also Aylan) Kurdi († 2) went around the world five years ago. It became a symbol of the refugee crisis that plunged Europe into chaos in 2015 when hundreds of thousands of migrants crossed from Turkey by boat to the Greek islands and flowed into Germany. Not all made it. Many drowned at the crossing, like little Alan.
Five years after Alan’s death, his aunt made an appeal to the international community. This should do more for the Syrians and end the war, said Tima Kurdi of the German press agency. Each country also has a responsibility to host more refugees; these are an “opportunity” for the host country.
Kurdi emphasized that he did not support either side in the civil war and demanded: “Germany and Europe should focus on how they can help the people.” Talks like the one in Geneva, where representatives of the government, the opposition and civil society are supposed to draw up a new constitution for Syria under the mediation of the UN, were not enough. A solution must be found “urgently”. “End the war in Syria”.
Only Alan’s father survived
The body of the then two-year-old Alan Kurdi was found on the shores of Turkey on September 2, 2015. His father, Abdullah Kurdi, and his family had tried to reach the Greek island of Kos by boat from Turkey. The ship capsized. Kurdi’s wife and their two young children drowned.
Turkish media had indicated that the boy’s age at that time was three years old, but according to his aunt Alan Kurdi he was two years old at the time of his death. Tima Kurdi lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Just two days after the tragedy on the night of September 4-5, 2015, Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel (66) and then Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann (60) decided to allow thousands of refugees to enter the country through the border.
Crowded warehouse
Even five years later, the image of Alan Kurdi has not lost its symbolic power. But the initial mood of welcome towards immigrants has changed, in Germany, Europe and also in Turkey.
The fields of Greece are overcrowded and the situation is desperate. Europe cannot agree on the distribution of immigrants. Turkey is grappling with an economic crisis that hits the socially vulnerable first, including refugees and migrants. In Syria, even nine years after the start of the civil war, there is no solution. The corona pandemic is exacerbating the situation.
Refugees as a lever
Merkel negotiated a refugee agreement with Turkey in spring 2016. It includes financial support for the 3.6 million Syrians in Turkey. She also ensured that dangerous attempts to reach Europe via the Aegean Sea were lessened. But the deal is controversial. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (66) uses it again and again as a lever.
At the end of February, Erdogan had declared that the border with Greece was open. Afghans, Pakistanis and Syrians headed west. They were repulsed by the Greek security forces with tear gas. Again there are disturbing images, again people die.
“People become numb to tragedy because tragedy happens every day,” says Tima Kurdi. She emigrated to Canada in 1992. Like her brothers Mohammad and Abdullah, Alan’s father, she worked as a hairdresser.
Alan’s aunt is fighting
The death of his nephew and sister-in-law changed Tima Kurdi. Now she is a fighter for the rights of refugees and wants to raise awareness and give them a voice. With her brother Abdullah, she founded a foundation for refugee children, addresses an international audience and has written a book about her family’s history, which, as she says, is the fate of many.
Before the civil war started, the Kurds were a perfectly normal Damascus middle-class family, as Tima Kurdi describes them. She has five siblings. The clashes forced the family to flee. First to the Kurdish border town of Kobane, then, as the IS terrorist militia advanced, to Turkey. There, Abdullah and Mohammad managed with odd jobs. Tima Kurdi wanted to bring her brothers with their wives and children from Istanbul to Vancouver, but failed due to Canadian bureaucracy and requirements.
Alan Kurdi’s father now lives in northern Iraq and has remarried. He named his little son after his late son, Alan. The Kurdi family lives scattered all over the world.
The image shocked the family
For the Kurdi family, the publication of Alan’s photo was difficult to bear. It hurt a lot the first year, says Tima Kurdi today. The image had also sparked a debate about what media should be able to show. The German Press Council decided at the time that it was a symbol for the refugees and their suffering and that there was a public interest in admission.
Was it okay to show the photo in the end? Tima Kurdi says she has “mixed feelings” about it. Her family was not asked for permission. But the photo shocked the world. “If the image helps refugees who are suffering, that’s fine,” she says. “In any case, I will continue to remind the world so that it does not forget the picture of the child on the beach.” (SDA / gf)
