No bodies could be recovered from the wreckage of a ferry which sank off the coast of Kyrenia last week, Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel said on Sunday, promising that the authorities will now look for “new resources and alternative methods” so as to be able to recover the bodies of the 15 people who remain unaccounted for after the accident.
“As of today, no new missing persons have been found. As the days pass, the conditions for the search-and-rescue operation, especially underwater and inside the sunken boat, are becoming increasingly difficult,” he said, with families of those missing gathering outside the new port of Kyrenia for the eighth successive day awaiting news of their loved ones.
He added that “despite all the difficulties, our teams working from the air, sea, underwater, and on land are continuing their work without interruption”, and stressed that “we have only one goal: to reach all our missing loved ones”.
“Therefore, while our current efforts are ongoing, we are also pursuing initiatives to utilise new resources and alternative methods,” he said, adding to this end that “we have already initiated certain efforts in this regard”.
On this front, he said that “technical personnel from experienced private organisations are currently conducting the necessary investigations in the area where the accident occurred and on the wreck, preparing their preliminary reports”.
Additionally, he said that he will travel to Istanbul on Monday “to discuss the reports prepared by these specialised organisations”, which he said are “experienced in deep-sea wreck searching and ship salvage operations”.
“We will jointly evaluate the steps which can be taken to reach our missing bed ons, to continue the work inside the ship, or to salvage the wreck,” he said.
After those meetings, he said, he will also meet with “senior officials from the boat’s insurance company” so as to “assess the situation and discuss how the process will proceed from now on”.
He said that he will then travel to Ankara to hold “high-level meetings”, in which he and Turkish officials “will evaluate the current situation, the reports received, and the steps which can be taken from now on”, before he will return to Cyprus and “share the roadmap for the coming period with the families of the missing and with the public”.
“As prime minister, my greatest responsibility is to utilise all the resources our state can use to reach our missing loved ones. We will leave no room for doubt, and no room to ask ourselves ‘could we have tried this?’. In addition to the state’s resources, we will utilise every technical capacity and new method available to the fullest extent,” he said.
Earlier, the Turkish government had announced that the country’s family ministry had assigned seven “psychosocial support personnel” to travel to Kyrenia to support the families of those who remain unaccounted for.
It said that the seven-person team are “conducting one-on-one meetings with the families”, as well as facilitating contact between relatives of the missing who have remained in Kyrenia, and those in Turkey.
“Should needs related to relatives in Turkey arise, contact is made with the provincial social services directorates in the provinces where the relatives reside,” it said, adding that in such cases, “necessary meetings are held with family members in Turkey, and the requested and needs of the families following the tragedy are evaluated and conveyed to the relevant authorities”.
On Sunday morning, a funeral was held in the town of Silifke, in Turkey’s Mersin province, for Nazmiye Ozbolat, a mother of eight who was one of the two people recovered from the wreckage on Friday. The funeral was held by the Turkish Cypriot diplomatic representative in Mersin, Ulku Alemdar.
The ferry capsized shortly after leaving the new port of Kyrenia en route to the Turkish port of Tasucu on August 30. Thus far, 13 people are confirmed to have died, while one person remains in hospital.
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