“My one and only, where are you,” a mother cried at a cemetery beside a freshly-laid mound of earth. She couldn't process the death of her 33-year-old son who was killed in a coal mine explosion in northern Turkey.
Selcuk Ayvaz was among the first to be buried, following a funeral Saturday where his coffin was wrapped in the red and white Turkish flag. Relatives told his stunned 3-year-old daughter to say farewell to his coffin. His wife, who is expecting their third child —a boy — any day now, was distraught, slowly eating a chocolate bar from the hand of a social worker.
