An Australian man was killed in the devastating Turkey earthquake. His nephew flew in to find his dead body

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Australian Elias Bahali sat for minutes behind the body of his uncle, squatting and silent, after a week-long mission to extract it from the rubble in the collapsed city of Antakya in southern Turkey.

John Bahali, 67, from Sydney, was visiting family in Antakya when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria a week ago, killing tens of thousands of people and burying a house in the rubble.

Ilyas Bahali traveled to Turkey to find his uncle, a well-known operating shop volunteer, who he described as the “hotspot” of his family.

But he and many of the earthquake survivors had to search for their loved ones on their own.

Rescue workers arrived days late and in insufficient numbers in Antakya and the neighboring province of Hatay.

They lost crucial time rescuing victims under rubble in freezing temperatures, sparking public outrage against the Turkish government for the flawed response.

Ilias Bahali believes his uncle could have been saved if rescuers had reached him sooner.

“My uncle could have survived,” he told the ABC, minutes after the body was removed from the rubble.

“From what I heard, on the first day, someone was calling out from that building.

He was calling out but no one left [to him]. “

How to help the victims of the Turkish and Syrian earthquakes

How did the recovery mission unfold?

Elias Bahali and his relatives spent four days looking for help excavating the ruins of a collapsed house, where Banali was visiting his family.

Yesterday, with hopes of finding survivors fading and many rescuers abandoning their operations, Mr. Pahali finally convinced a Thai rescue team with a thermal camera to scan the site.

They spot his uncle’s arm in the rubble.

Today, three weary rescuers have joined him to excavate his uncle’s body from crushed concrete, planks and twisted metal.

In the end, it only took three hours.

Elias Bahali traveled from Australia to Hatay so that he could find his uncle Can, who died in the earthquake. (ABC News: Haidar Jones)

Mr. Pahali and the men lifted the body from the rubble and carried it up a street where it could finally be collected.

He washed his hands with a plastic water bottle, and broke the news to his family as tears streamed down his dusty face.

Finally, he lowered his body and crossed his legs for a few minutes of silence, and sat down behind his uncle’s corpse under the canopy of a damaged shop.

Bahali said he felt “relief”.

Elias believes that his uncle could have been saved if rescuers had reached him in time. (ABC News: Haidar Jones)

“The worst part is that there was no body,” he said.

“Now we have a body to bury.”

Anger grows in earthquake-hit Turkey

Pahali, better known as John, was a beloved member of the Glebe community in central Sydney, and volunteered at the local op shop and soup kitchen.

He moved in with Elias and his mother at their home in Merrylands, in western Sydney, during the COVID pandemic.

He was visiting his sister at her home when the earthquake struck, turning the city of Antakya into a wasteland of destroyed buildings, corpses and desperate survivors.

His sister managed to survive by running to her kitchen, which somehow remained intact, but Pahali was missing, and he feared death.

Kan Pahali’s family traveled to the disaster area to retrieve his body. (supplied)

Three Australians have been confirmed dead in the earthquake, which is so far known to have killed more than 33,000 people in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria.

Read more about the earthquake disaster:

Bahali said rescuers were overwhelmed by the scale of the damage.

“They were only looking for live bodies and were not interested in the dead,” he said.

Unless they hear a sound [in the rubble]No one will come to help. My cousin has been walking around for days asking for help.

“They are all interested in the big apartments. Everyone is focused on them.”

The death toll from the earthquakes that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria exceeded 33,179. (ABC News: Haidar Jones)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged some initial “shortcomings” in the earthquake response.

But critics in Hatay province have been accused of lying about emergency operations and vowed to “keep a record of all opponents”.

His government has also been criticized for poor preparations and poor construction standards in the earthquake-prone region.

Public outbursts of anger are rare in Turkey, where protests are banned, opponents muzzled, and many fear the consequences of criticizing the government.

Ilyas says he will stay in Turkey for the time being to help other earthquake survivors. (ABC News: Haidar Jones)

“Everyone, even the rescuers, are all angry at the Turkish government,” Ilyas Bahali said.

“I don’t want to say too much because it’s a bit of a risk for me.

“I’ll have a lot to say when I get back [to Australia]. “

Bahali said he plans to stay in southeastern Turkey to help the many survivors who are still searching for their loved ones and who have no shelter, electricity, fuel or running water.

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