There are no bodies remaining in the wreckage of the ferry which sank off the coast of Kyrenia last month, Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel said on Friday, with 13 people remaining unaccounted for 26 days after the ferry sank.

“Every square metre, every bag, and every seat was examined. No area within the boat was left unsearched. The comprehensive searches revealed no further bodies inside the vessel,” he said.

He added that the body which was recovered last Saturday – the fifteenth confirmed death from the disaster and the seventh body to be recovered – “was also reached under extremely difficult conditions”.

Despite confirming that the ferry is now empty, Ustel insisted that “our search operations have not concluded”.

“Our efforts continue across air, land, and sea to locate any bodies which may be found underwater or on the water’s surface,” he said.

He also confirmed that the boat’s black box had been recovered on Friday and handed to the Turkish Cypriot police, saying that “the necessary examinations will be conducted by the relevant authorities”.

“As a state, we have deployed all our resources. Every available means has been utilised. We have mobilised the same capabilities used in search and rescue operations worldwide. We will continue to explore any further methods which could assist in the search operations,” he said.

He then stressed that “we will not abandon the search efforts”, and that “we will do whatever is required and continue our efforts to locate the missing, using all the resources at our disposal”.

Those responsible ‘will be held accountable’, Ustel says

Additionally, he made reference to the ongoing court case involving the ferry’s captain, Mustafa Oz, seven members of its crew, and one director of its operating company, Filo Denizcilik, saying that “we are also closely monitoring the ongoing legal proceedings”.

“We will follow every step of the process to ensure that anyone found to have been negligent or at fault in this tragedy receives the punishment prescribed by law. Whoever they may be, they will be held accountable before the law,” he said.

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. 

The eight defendants appeared in court earlier on Friday, when it was heard that the Turkish Cypriot authorities were not informed about a crack which had appeared on the ferry’s left side on June 17, despite both Oz and Filo Denizcilik having been obliged to inform the authorities.

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.