Another body recovered from seas around sunken Kyrenia ferry

A twenty-first body was recovered from the sea off the coast of Kyrenia as search operations continue following the sinking of a passenger ferry off the town’s coast in August, Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel said on Monday. He said that the “necessary examinations and procedures to identify the recovered body” are ongoing, before stressing that “from the very moment the disaster occurred, the state has mobilised all its resources to locate all the missing individuals, and operations have continued without interruption”. The recovery of the latest body comes with two others having been recovered over the weekend, and the body found last Tuesday having been identified as 43-year-old Ferdi Torer. Torer had travelled to Cyprus on holiday in August alongside his daughter Nisa and his sons Yunus and Yusuf and were travelling back to their native Turkey aboard the ferry. Related Articles • Funeral held for five-year-old who died in Kyrenia ferry disaster • Kyrenia ferry search operation continuing ‘inch by inch’, Sucuoglu says • Eighteenth body recovered after Kyrenia ferry disaster • Two more bodies from Kyrenia ferry wreckage found Both Yunus and Yusuf reached the shore alive, but Nisa died, with her funeral being held on September 1. The three children’s mother, Gunes Torer, died of cancer in 2022. Last Thursday, Turkish Cypriot ‘transport minister’ Faiz Sucuoglu had suggested that the ferry had been involved in a “minor accident” during the summer, but that this had not been reported. “This is the information we received. Of course, the police have many more details. It had a minor accident and this was not reported,” he told Kibris Postasi TV, before later asking “what fault does Turk Loydu have here?” in relation to the company which certified the ferry as seaworthy in June. However, when the nine people who are being held in custody as a result of the accident appeared in court in Kyrenia the following day, a police representative said that “no such evidence has been found”. Crack appeared on side of boat in June It had been said at a previous court hearing that a crack had appeared on the side of the boat almost two months before it sank on August 30 and that, according to photographs recovered from the first mate’s mobile phone, the repairs were carried out on June 17. Those repairs were done by the boat’s captain, Mustafa Oz and its crew, with the court hearing on Friday that they were carried out at a port in Cyprus, but that the Turkish Cypriot authorities were not informed, despite Oz and its operating company, Filo Denizcilik, being obliged to inform them under such circumstances. The repairs were carried out just 15 days after Turk Loydu had certified the boat as seaworthy. However, while the certificate issued by Turk Loydu states the certificate is valid until 2029, its online database states that the certificate is “invalid”. It is unclear whether the certificate was declared invalid before or after the ferry sank on August 30. The Cyprus Mail has reached out to Turk Loydu, while the Turkish Cypriot police last month said that they, too, are awaiting a response from the firm regarding the procedures undertaken during the ferry’s examination. 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. With 21 people now confirmed to have died as a result of the accident, a total of seven people remain missing. Previously, it had been said in court that 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.