Anguish turned into anger as the wait for news regarding the 20 people who remain missing after a ferry sank off the coast of Kyrenia stretched into its third day on Tuesday, with the younger brother of Mehmet Bayhan, who remains unaccounted for, expressing fury at the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot authorities as he waited for news at the port of Kyrenia.

“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,” his brother Ahmet shouted in the direction of the Turkish Cypriot security forces building adjacent to the new port. 

He also demanded that the north’s ’transport minister’, who did not travel to Kyrenia on Monday and had not been seen at the port by midday on Tuesday, meet those waiting face to face.

“That minister will come here. There will be no resigning without being held accountable,” he said, with Arikli having said on Monday that he will resign “if necessary”. 

“I will resign if necessary, but trying to attack someone from the very beginning is unethical. Be patient. Once the black box is found, everyone, including myself, will bear whatever political responsibility there may be,” he told the north’s public broadcaster BRT.

Ahmet involved in a struggle with security forces at Kyrenia port