In Fatih Mosque, today following the noon prayer (zuhr), a funeral prayer in absentia will be offered for Faruk Aktas, coordinator of IHH’s Asia Desk and Bahattin Yildiz, our project coordinator in Afghanistan who were on board the passenger plane that crashed on the 17th of May, 2010, in a remote mountain site called Salang Pass, north of the capital Kabul.
In Izmir, in a mosque within the campus of Faculty of Teology, another funeral prayer in absentia will be offered simultaneously with the one in Istanbul.
All friends and families of the deceased are expected to attend the funeral.
Faruk Aktas and Bahattin Yildiz were on a trip to Kunduz on a trip to Afghanistan for buying land to build an orphanage on behalf of IHH (The Foundation For Human Rights And Freedoms And Humanitarian Relief). After finding the 400-meter-square land needed for the orphanage project, they were on their way back to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, from Kunduz when the accident happened. The arrival of the bodies to Turkey will take a while as the identification process still continues.
Condolence visits to IHH
Following the accident, hundreds of people have paid condolence visits to the head office of IHH in Fatih, Istanbul. The visitors have sent their condolences to the families, friends, beloved ones and colleagues of Aktas and Yildiz. Thanks to the visits, the head office of the Foundation has been busy and crowded for the last couple of days.
In that last photograph they look like they were about to say their goodbyes
Meanwhile, the last photograph of Aktas and Yildiz which was taken just before boarding on the airplane has been revealed. The two seem like they were about to say their goodbyes in the photo. IHH’s partner organization in Afghanistan delivered these photographs taken in Kunduz region to IHH and to the families of the deceased.
