A funeral was held on Wednesday for five-year-old Asaf Bicer, who died when the ferry on which he was travelling sank off the coast of Kyrenia in August.

The service was held in the town of Reyhanli, which is located in Turkey’s Hatay province, between the Turkish Mediterranean coastal city of Iskenderun and Syria’s second city, Aleppo.

It was attended by his two parents, Ayten and Hayri Bicer, other members of his family, and Reyhanli district governor Muharrem Cosgun.

Asaf Bicer’s 12-year-old sister, Miray Bicer, remains unaccounted for, 32 days after the ferry sank.

Ayten Bicer’s daughter’s foot slipped through her hands as ferry sank

His mother recounted the ordeal on the day after the ferry sank, saying that her daughter was “saying, ‘don’t let go’, and I didn’t let go of my daughter.

“I swear, I didn’t let her go,” she said, tears streaming down her face, before explaining that a suitcase fell on top of her, forcing her daughter from her grasp.

She said that she had grabbed her daughter’s foot, but that her shoes, coated in engine oil from the overturned boat, slipped through her hands.

His father, meanwhile, explained that everything happened suddenly on the day of the accident. 

“We couldn’t intervene. We lost our children. We made a lot of effort, but we couldn’t save our children. Two of my children are gone. One of my sons is alive. Two of my children are gone. Two of my three children are gone. We left them. We are leaving them on this island as we go,” he said.

Ayten Bicer later said that “it was slipping like oil” and that “there was diesel, our feet were slippery”.

“It was slippery everywhere. It was like oil. She slipped out of my hand. Mehmet Asaf held on to his father here,” she said, showing the collar of her T-shirt – “saying, ‘Baba’”, she added. 

A total of 18 people are confirmed to have died as a result of the accident, while ten remain unaccounted for.

Nine remain in custody with legal proceedings ongoing

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.

Shortly after the accident, a total of nine people – the ferry’s captain, Mustafa Oz, seven members of its crew, and one director of its operating company, Filo Denizcilik – were arrested, and all nine remain in custody, with court proceedings against them ongoing.

The nine defendants most recently appeared in court last 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 ten years.

The Cyprus Mail has contacted Honduras’ directorate-general of merchant maritime in an attempt to verify the authenticity of the licence.