Turkey on Thursday marked six years since the body of the 3-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi washed ashore, making headlines worldwide and becoming a symbol of the refugee crisis due to the war in Syria.
The toddler had been on board a boat carrying 14 irregular migrants, five of whom died when it sank.
The picture of his lifeless body jolted the world, giving a face to the humanitarian crisis caused by the civil war in Syria.
A memorial service is held at Fener Burnu Beach, where his body was found by locals of Turkey's Mediterranean town of Bodrum, every year on Sept. 2.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) during the memorial this year, Ömer Sarıkaya, who shot the movie "Aylan Bebek" ("Aylan Baby") to shed light on the fate of refugees, said what happened was shameful for all of humanity and they organized the memorial service so the world could see the result of their inaction.
Nothing has changed since then, Sarikaya said, adding: "For me, this is the shame of the U.N. Thousands, maybe tens of thousands of Aylan babies have unfortunately lost their lives in these seas since that day. We hope that the world will not turn a blind eye to this and something like it will never happen again."
Syria has been ravaged by a civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced, according to U.N. estimates.
