North’s authorities ‘did not even call’ relatives of washed up body

The son of a man whose body was found washed up on the north’s coast last month said on Tuesday the north’s authorities “did not even call” him after his father went missing.

The body was found off the coast of Ayios Amvrosios during the last week of February and was subsequently identified as 63-year-old Turkish lorry driver Hasan Colgecen, who had failed to arrive in Famagusta after boarding an overnight ferry from the Turkish city of Mersin on February 14.

The exact circumstances surrounding his death remain somewhat of a mystery as there was no CCTV on the boat.

His son Saban Colgecen spoke to newspaper Ozgur Gazete about the ordeal, saying “no one from Cyprus, not the police, not the transport minister nor any other official even called us or gave us any information.”

He also criticised ferry company Akgunler Denizcilik, saying “they did not even call to express their condolences.”

“We would at the very least have expected someone to express their condolences or call. No one would want something like this to happen on their boat, and I empathise with that, but they could have at least called and expressed their condolences and given us some information about the issue,” he added.

“I had to go myself in person to the Famagusta police station and demand to be informed,” he said.

“Did someone push my father off the boat? Did something happen to him? Did he fall off the boat himself? We don’t know how it happened,” he added.

He went on to say that others on the boat had told him his father had “not argued with anyone on the day” and that he was “not hostile to anyone”.

“My father was a positive and cheerful person who did not have any problems with anyone. On the day of the incident, he met his grandchildren, my sister, and my wife, and his mood was very good,” he added.

He said he had resolved to file a lawsuit against Akgunler Denizcilik “and anyone who was negligent”, adding that the Mersin chief public prosecutor’s office is “following the incident” and that he and his family have already met with four different lawyers about the matter.

“Lawyers are currently working on the file. If we have to file the case in Cyprus, we will do so.

“We lost our father; our pain is immeasurable and we our devastated … We will file a lawsuit against the ferry company and everyone else who was at fault and settle this in court so that others do not suffer and other children do not lose their fathers like we have,” he said.

“Let all the flaws on that boat be revealed. How can there not be a camera on a boat? If we knew what happened to our father because it had been recorded on CCTV, we would have been at least a little more at ease.”