The fifteenth body which was pulled from the wreckage of the ferry which sank off the coast of Kyrenia last month has been identified as Mehmet Bayhan, Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel said on Monday.

He stressed that “since the very moment the accident occurred, all relevant institutions have been working with great sensitivity and determination to locate the missing individuals, complete identification procedures as quickly as possible, and put an end to the uncertainty faced by their families”.

Bayhan’s younger brother Ahmet had been among the relatives of the missing who had been waiting for days on end outside the new port of Kyrenia for news of their loved ones, expressing his frustration at the situation two days after the accident.

“They claim that if there is negligence, the necessary steps will be taken. This is not negligence, it is murder. My brother did not die, he was killed. He did not drown, you drowned him. Get that into your heads,” he shouted in the direction of the Turkish Cypriot security forces building adjacent to the new port. 

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With the body having been recovered and now identified, the number of missing persons stands at 13, though Saturday’s announcement constitutes the first recovery of a body from the wreckage in almost two weeks, with the fourteenth body having been recovered on September 6.

Bayhan’s body was the first to be recovered since the deep-sea research and survey ship the Optimus Prime arrived in the waters off Kyrenia on Monday, with the vessel having been commissioned by the Turkish government and the Turkish Cypriot authorities to aid the efforts being made by the two Turkish naval ships, the TCG Isin and the TCG Alemdar.

Those two ships have been located off Kyrenia since the beginning of the month, with backup having been requested after Ustel said on September 6 that “as the days pass, the conditions for the search-and-rescue operation, especially underwater and inside the sunken boat, are becoming increasingly difficult”.

Meanwhile, ‘transport minister’ Faiz Sucuoglu said that the Optimus Prime “has a different capability and feature” compared to the two naval vessels, while also describing the ferry disaster as “one of the greatest tragedies” Cyprus has seen “since 1974”.

Nine remain in custody after ferry accident

The ferry capsized shortly after leaving the new port of Kyrenia en route to the Turkish port of Tasucu at a little after midday on August 30, with 259 passengers and eight crew members on board. 

All eight members of the boat’s crew, including its captain, Mustafa Oz, were arrested on the day of the disaster, and all eight, as well as a director of the ferry’s operating company, Filo Denizcilik, remain in custody.

They most recently appeared in court on Friday, where a police representative said that after a crack in the boat was noticed in June, it only underwent “superficial” repairs.

Previously, it had been said in court that the captain Oz had bought his Honduran captain’s licence for $3,500. A police representative said at the time that Oz had said under questioning that he had initially obtained a licence in Turkey, but that it had become invalid after he did not work as a boat captain for 10 years.

The Cyprus Mail has contacted Honduras’ directorate-general of merchant maritime in an attempt to verify the authenticity of the licence.