August 27, 1999
Section: News
Page: 1B
Jane Lerner, Staff of THE JOURNAL NEWS

CHESTNUT RIDGE - Tosun Bayrak had just spent an exhausting two weeks helping refugees in Kosovo and was looking forward to a good night's sleep in his vacation home in Turkey.

But as he dozed, the walls of his Istanbul home began to shake. Then the floors buckled. Then the room itself started to gyrate.

'' We could hardly stand up because the floor was moving sideways and up and down, '' the Chestnut Ridge resident recalled yesterday. '' I thought the house was going to fall down. ''

It wasn't until the next morning that Bayrak and his wife, Jean, realized the extent of the devastation wrought by last week's earthquake. The death toll has reached 13,000, and emergency workers fear thousands of bodies are still buried under the rubble.

Bayrak, a native of Turkey who has lived in Rockland for more than 20 years, arrived home from the earthquake-stricken regions earlier this week. And he has lost no time organizing relief efforts.

Bayrak is the imam, or spiritual leader, of Jerrahi Mosque in Chestnut Ridge, where Muslims from Rockland and the New York metropolitan area gather to pray and study.

At today's traditional prayer service, Bayrak will describe to his followers what he saw and experienced in Turkey. The mosque has set up a relief fund earmarked for Turkey, and Bayrak has arranged for the money to be distributed directly to poor people most devastated by the earthquake.

'' The situation in Turkey won't be fixed in a week, '' he said yesterday. '' It will take years to repair the damage. ''

Local Muslims are ready to take on the challenge.

'' We are part of the global community, '' said Chestnut Ridge resident Zehra Lowenthal, a member of Jerrahi Mosque. '' We feel a bond with these people, and we want to help them. ''

It was the generosity of Rockland's Muslims and other community members that brought Bayrak to Turkey last week.

The mosque he leads had collected more than $150,000 for relief efforts in war-ravaged Kosovo. Bayrak spent two weeks delivering money, food, toys and other supplies to residents of two villages nearly leveled during the war with Serbia.

In one of the small villages, Pokleke, 53 women and children had been herded into one room and massacred. In the other village the mosque has pledged to help, Obri, 170 people were killed in the war.

It was an emotionally and physically exhausting trip, Bayrak recalled. He arrived home in Istanbul just hours before the earthquake struck.

'' I was witness to a disaster done by the hand of man, and I was witness to a disaster made by nature, '' he said.

Bayrak said the images of both war-ravaged Kosovo and earthquake-damaged Turkey will always remain with him.

'' We complain about tiny little pains and problems, '' he said. '' But those things are a joke in comparison to these sorts of disasters. ''