An event like a movie in Gaziantep! They learned the truth after burying him, thinking he was dead.

It was learned three months later that Sariye Ceyran, who was thought to have died due to a name similarity, was alive. Abdurrahman Ceyran, who lives in Gaziantep, sent his sons to Istanbul to retrieve the body after receiving a phone call stating that his sister, who lived in a nursing home in the same city, had died and they needed to collect the funeral. Ceyran, who learned from a phone call from the nursing home in Gaziantep three months after the burial that his sister was alive, could not believe what he heard.

"HE COULDN'T CONVINCE THE CALLER"

Ceyran said, "We learned that my sister, whom we thought was dead, is alive; whoever owns the body we buried should come and take it." The 76-year-old Abdurrahman Ceyran could not convince the person who called him three months ago to inform him of his sister's death that she was staying in a nursing home in Gaziantep. After persistent conversations about needing to collect the body, he sent his two sons to Istanbul. When Ceyran's two sons went to the hospital where the body was, they could not identify it because it was wrapped to prevent odor. After the body was brought to Gaziantep and washed, it was shown to his brother Abdurrahman Ceyran. At that moment, Ceyran, who claimed he could not fully identify his sister, buried the body in the Suruç district of Şanlıurfa.

"WHY AREN'T YOU VISITING YOUR SISTER?"

Ceyran was shocked when he received a phone call three months after burying the body. Officials calling from the nursing home in Yavuzeli, Gaziantep, asked Ceyran why he had not visited his sister. Upon this, Ceyran went to the nursing home and was astonished to see his sister in front of him. Describing the shock he experienced after the incident, Abdurrahman Ceyran said, "I had thought my sister was dead for months, but the body they sent as my sister turned out to be someone else’s. The body we buried was most likely mixed up due to name similarity."

Describing the process he went through, Abdurrahman Ceyran said, "In 2020, I entrusted my sister Sariye Ceyran to the nursing home and would visit her occasionally. Then, after the earthquake, they transferred my sister Sariye to Yavuzeli, but I received no news at all. Later, on June 18 of this year, I received a phone call from Istanbul. The person on the phone said, 'Your sister has died, come and take her; if you don’t come, we will bury her in the cemetery for the unclaimed.' I said, 'What is my sister doing in Istanbul? We live in Gaziantep.' They asked me, 'Isn’t your sister’s name, surname, mother’s name, and father’s name this?' I said, 'Yes.' They said, 'Your sister is dead; if you don’t collect the body, we will have to bury her in the cemetery for the unclaimed.' After that, I sent my children to bring the body."

"IT WAS SAID SHE HAD DECAYED AND LOST WEIGHT"

Ceyran claimed that when his children received the body, they were told it was wrapped for air travel and that identification could not be made there, saying, "When my children went to collect the body, they were told, 'This will smell, decay, and no one will package it; the plane won’t take it.' After that, the officials scanned the paper and handed it over to my children because the name and birth date matched. Therefore, my children took it and brought it back. When I lifted this body, it weighed less than 20 kilos. I told the washing staff that I wanted to see my sister. They showed me her eyebrows and eyes. They told me she had decayed and lost weight. I believed them. I didn’t know it wasn’t mine."

"JOY AND SORROW TOGETHER: LET THOSE WHOSE BODY IS MISSING COME AND TAKE IT"

Ceyran, who said he was called three months after burying the body, stated, "While I was mourning, in September 2024, I was called from the nursing home in Yavuzeli. They told me my sister Sariye was alive and that I should come and see her. I went and saw with my own eyes that my sister was alive. Now I say my sister is alive."

Abdurrahman Ceyran, who stated that they experienced joy and sadness together after the incident, addressed the owners of the body they buried, saying, "Come and take this body. My only request from the authorities is that my sister is alive. Whoever the body we buried belongs to, come and identify it. The body they sent as my sister turned out to be someone else’s. Those whose bodies are missing should come; the location of the body is known."