Pope Francis met the father of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned in the Aegean Sea

Pope Francis met today in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, with the father of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syro-Kurdish boy who drowned while trying to get to Turkey by boat in 2015 to escape the war..

According to the communication released by the Vatican press office, “The Pope spoke with him for a long time and, with the help of the interpreter, he was able to listen to the father’s pain for the loss of his family and to express his deep participation and that of the Lord in the suffering of man. . “. For his part, Abdallah expressed his gratitude to the Pope for his words of closeness to his tragedy and that of all migrants who seek understanding, peace and security, leaving their own country even at the risk of their lives.

On September 2, 2015, the photograph of the corpse of the 3-year-old Syrian, who was trying with his parents and his brother to reach the Greek island of Kos, caused a huge shock in the world., sheds a bloody light on the tragedy of hundreds of thousands of refugees, mostly Syrians, fleeing the deadly war in their country.

Aylan Kurdi drowned with her older brother Galip and their mother Rehanna when their inflatable boat sank in the middle of the Aegean Sea. Only the father was the only one who survived the wreck of the precarious boat.

Like hundreds of thousands of Syrians, the Kurdi family fled the bloody war in their country since 2011 and the advance of the Islamic State group in the Kobane region where he lived. The Kurdi family was fleeing this city, besieged for months by the jihadist group, in an attempt to reach Europe and then emigrate to Canada.

The boy was photographed by Turkish photojournalist Nilüfer Demir and the image traveled around the world. In the months that followed, Aylan’s lifeless body, lying on the beach, was performed by artists from all continents to keep his memory alive.

In fact, Aylan Kurdi’s father gave the pontiff a painting with the tragic photo of the drowned boy on the shores of the Aegean Sea.

Aylan has become a symbol of unintentional horror. The Turkish policeman who appears in several photographs collecting the child’s lifeless body from a beach in Bodrum thought of his own son when he saw the Three year old Syrian boy lying on the beach. “When I approached the child I said to myself “My God, I hope he’s alive. But he showed no sign of life. I was devastatedPolice officer Mehmet Ciplak said in statements to Turkish agency Dogan. “I have a six year old boy. When I saw the little one I thought of my son and put myself in his father’s shoes. I can’t describe in words what a sad and tragic sight it was, ”he recalls.

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