The industry has recovered.
Mehmet Çetin, the owner of the funeral services association, the owner of the grave care and grave construction in Antalya, stated that there is no immediate problem about the graveyard areas in our city.
The guest of today’s interview was Mehmet Çetin, the owner of the funeral services association, the owner of the grave care and grave construction in Antalya, which is the example of universities for many entrepreneurs around the world. Çetin, which adds a new dimension to funeral and grave services with its Kabir care service, has now put its hands on the sector for its success. The details of our interview with Çetin, which has been successfully carrying out the duty of the funeral service since 2014, are as follows:
CAN YOU KNOW?
I was born in 1979 Antalya. I am the President of Funeral Services Association and also I am the owner of Antalya Kabir Care and Grave Making company. Our association was founded in 2006 and I am the president of the association since 2014. I was also the general secretary of the association. We had established a business that had not been done in our country until that day and we also started grave construction. Since we believe in the power of artisans and chambers, our way has intersected with the association and we have come to this day.
CAN WE GET INFORMATION ABOUT THE ASSOCIATION?
Our association shows overall activity in Turkey and we have close to 50 members. 18-20 of them are from Antalya. We have members from various cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Gaziantep. Among our members, we have friends from various professions such as graveyard, funeral, digger, makeup artist, teacher and florist. Funeral services, gravestones, marble masters, coffins, grave diggers, grave carers, cemetery sellers, makeup artist, clergymen, drivers in the sector, morgue service providers, those who work in these sectors that provide a variety of textiles and products to the funeral service have many problems. We work hard to solve these problems under the roof of our association.
HOW WAS YOU TO MEET THE SECTOR?
I have been involved in many different sectors before. My grandfather’s grave was an inconvenience, and he was going to do it, and I couldn’t find anyone to take care of this grave. I’m going to wear this on my head so much that I dreamed my grandfather’s grave one night. I was so impressed with my dream that I decided to settle the problems of people in my situation and in 2008 I established a company called Kabir Care and Tomb Construction in Antalya. We have yet to hire a flowered in Turkey and to the grave, people were supposed to perform maintenance on the irrigation and prove ourselves. We forwarded our work with photo and message to our customers, and we have come to this day by making our business more qualified. When we first started working in 2008, people laughed at us; But today we have reached a serious potential in the point reached, we have established ourselves into the market. I think I’m an example to Turkey in this area. Today, people call me from outside the province to get information about this business. I have also organized international conferences with participants from outside countries such as Belgium, Greece, China and Germany in 2011 and 2013.
WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS OF THE SECTOR?
There are always problems in the sector. The funeral services sector is closely related to the tourism sector and in this sense, our sector has shown a great orientation for foreign funeral services for the last 2 years. The shrinkage in tourism in recent years has been negatively reflected on our sector and there has been a noticeable decline in our business. According to the number of tourists coming to our country and our city, the death rates vary up or down. Electric shock, drowning, traffic accidents as a result of events on the holiday can be lost tourists. Sending them out of the country brings an economic boost to our sector. Due to the negativity experienced in tourism, a 50% job decrease was experienced in our sector. Hopefully this year tourism will go well and this will reflect our sector positively. In the years when tourism was going bad, we became friends, and closed our workplace; but this year everyone is hopeful about tourism. In addition, as in other sectors, our expenses are very high. Our taxes are very high. I think we will be very happy together with our friends if the authorities make an arrangement.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFICULTIES OF YOUR PROFESSION?
When people have funerals, they don’t know how to proceed and they are in a heavy emotional collapse. At this point, we can say that we are providing people with psychological support rather than receiving their money. We will try to comfort the funeral owners by going to work and suggesting that there will be no problems about the funeral. After this phase, we pass on issues such as the transplant or burial of the funeral. We are in common with people’s sorrow and suffering, and this situation inevitably affects our psychology. After all, we do business; but on the other hand, we are human beings, and sometimes the spiritual dimension of this work is too heavy for us.
DO YOU HAVE A TAPER?
We find it hard to find staff. We find it difficult to find staff in grave construction, grave care and funeral services. The sector’s shortage of staff is not only available to us, but also to all sub-sectors. In fact, we need employees who are in the young age range; but now our employees are made up of upper age groups. We are very pleased with them and we thank them for their services. Unfortunately, young people prefer desk work. I started this job at the age of 28, today I am 38 years old and I invite our young friends to do this; because our sector is in very good condition due to social rights. You can find all rights such as breakfast, lunch, service, insurance, weekly leave in our sector.
A CIRCUMCULATION OF CEMETERY?
There are great problems in the country and even around the world. The standard burial measure is known as 1’2; but with the environmental arrangements, a funeral needs 6 square meters. When we make an account about our 70 million population, we are experiencing a lot of hardship, and a solution must now be made about it. If it goes like this, we can say that in the future there are great problems about the places in the cemetery. An average of 300 people die on a daily basis in Istanbul and a cemetery area of about 1 per day is needed. On average 60 people die in Antalya. We don’t have a problem in Antalya at the moment. We see the interest and relevance of the managers of our city in the slightest demand. We are aware of our industry and we have no problems with them. Our Mayor Menderes carried out the necessary works on the site of the cemetery in Türel; but when we examine the numerical data, the existing fields will not be enough for our city after 10 years.
THE EFFECT OF DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGY ON THE SECTOR?
Developing technology has also affected our business. Different concepts can be applied in graves. Head stones that were applied in the Ottoman period have become more and more popular nowadays. Head stones that reflect the people’s profession and life stories are becoming more preferred. In such cases, developing technology is very helpful to us. We do 3-D drawings for the desired work and we try to do what people want us to do. Graves can be made in many different varieties. Today, the lowest burial cost starts at 600 pounds. There is no limit to luxury; but we can also see the grave prices that find 10 thousand pounds. In addition, we are also preparing to bring our web site to a global view as we do business to countries abroad. www.antalyakabirbakimi.com site in English, Russian, Arabic and German language options in the coming days will continue to provide services to our customers.
