“My two daughters and my six-year-old son are gone. How did they slip through my fingers? I couldn’t hold on to them. I can’t go on living.”
“My
daughter slipped from my arms. My arms have held her so many times, yet she slipped from my embrace.”
It
is a grief unlike any other. Of the mother and father who lost their
children “I was
holding my daughter’s hand; the suitcase fell from my hands; my daughter let go of my hand; I grabbed her by the leg, but she slipped from my grasp because she was soaked in diesel.”

“We’ve checked all the hospitals—nothing! My children, my wife! Tell me something—are they dead, are they not dead? Enough already, enough already!”
 
“They won’t be found; they got stuck between the suitcases, inside the ship—they’re still in there. Both of them are gone. Who? Who’s going to answer to me? They’re gone.”
The anguished
screams of desperate women and the cries of children create a scene of chaos as the catamaran lurches and begins to take on water before finally listing. Terrified, the passengers beg for help.

The ferry began taking on water 7 kilometers after departing from the port of Kyrenia. When the captain attempted to turn the ship around to return, the ferry capsized.

Many jumped into the water to save themselves. There weren’t enough lifeboats or life jackets for everyone. Eight people drowned in the raging waves, while another 20 were trapped inside the catamaran’s hull and sank with it to a depth of 514 meters. Survivors await rescue by helicopters and Coast Guard vessels. A total of 241 people were pulled alive from the water.

“There’s a dead woman in the water; no one came to help. Look at that woman. Look, look—we’re all stranded.”
The survivors’ testimonies are
harrowing, as they describe the nightmarish moments they endured.
 
“I’ve seen people who couldn’t swim die at sea because, in their panic, they didn’t grab the life jackets and jumped into the sea.”
 
“There were so many screams, so many people in the back, but they were all crammed together and couldn’t get out. Those on the lower deck were unlucky; they were trapped there—I saw it. Some of them drowned.”
“We
realized the ship was taking on water. We went to get the life jackets, but there weren’t any.”
 
“At first, the ship was bouncing over the waves. Water was gushing out of all the holes. We shouted, ‘Call the Coast Guard.’ A man came out and said, ‘No problem, this is normal,’ and people panicked. We headed toward the exit door.”
“We
couldn’t find any life jackets. They closed the door on us and told us to wait—they’d get us out. We couldn’t get out. There was a very small baby, and many people were trapped inside the ship because the doors were locked.”

Hopes of finding survivors are fading.  At first light, the search resumed from the air and sea, with aircraft, drones, helicopters equipped with night-vision gear, and ships.
 
“On one side there’s a helicopter, on the other side a search-and-rescue ship, and right next to it are coast guard teams from Turkey. UAVs are also conducting search and rescue operations from the air.”
“We have
experienced a great tragedy. We are in pain. Search and rescue efforts continue.”
 
A Turkish Navy search-and-rescue vessel is expected to arrive in the occupied territories; it is capable of conducting searches at depths of up to 1,000 meters and recover the black box, which may provide answers regarding the events leading up to the sinking.
 
“A specialized vessel has set sail from Turkey and will arrive tomorrow at the site where the ship sank. The first step will be to recover the black box.”

Scenes reminiscent of an ancient tragedy unfolded outside the port of Kyrenia and at the hospitals. The relatives’ grief is giving way to anger and indignation. They break down in tears and lash out at police officers from the pseudo-state, demanding answers about the fate of their loved ones.
 
“Two of our friends are missing.”
“We
haven’t been given any information. We’re very afraid, of course, and we’re waiting.”

Following a request from the so-called prime minister of the pseudo-state, Ünal Ustel, the press conference scheduled for today by “Transport Minister” Erhan Arıklı was postponed until a later date, pending the recovery of the ship’s black box.
 
ALI MAHIR BASARIR, Turkish Member of Parliament: “Everyone
, of course, has the twenty of our fellow citizens who are missing on their minds right now.”
 
Starting early this morning, officials from Turkey and the so-called “state,” including the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Erdoğan government and members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, arrived one after another at the hospital in occupied Nicosia, where survivors of the shipwreck are being treated.
 
The circumstances of the maritime tragedy are raising pressing questions, with Turkish Cypriot journalists criticizing the so-called “Minister of Transportation,” Erhan Arikli, for the fact that while the catamaran was initially denied permission to set sail yesterday due to bad weather, approval was ultimately granted an hour later. Survivors are reporting serious safety lapses and an inadequate response from the crew. According to the Turkish Cypriot press, this is not the first time the ill-fated 26-year-old catamaran has taken on water and faced problems with damage and cracks that were not detected in time.

See the report by Christoforos Nestoros:

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