Funeral held in Turkey for five-year-old boy who died in ferry sinking off Kyrenia

Reyhanli, Turkey. 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. His 12-year-old sister, Miray Bicer, remains unaccounted for 32 days after the sinking.

Funeral in Hatay province

The service took place in Reyhanli, in Turkey’s Hatay province, between the Turkish Mediterranean coastal city of Iskenderun and Syria’s second city, Aleppo.

His parents, Ayten and Hayri Bicer, attended alongside other family members and Reyhanli district governor Muharrem Cosgun.

Mother recounts losing her grip

Speaking the day after the ferry sank, Ayten Bicer described trying to hold on to her daughter as the vessel went down.

Her daughter was “saying, ‘don’t let go’,” she recalled, adding that she had not let go of her daughter.

“I swear, I didn’t let her go,” she said, with tears streaming down her face.

She explained that a suitcase fell on top of her, forcing her daughter from her grasp. She then grabbed her daughter’s foot, but the girl’s shoes, coated in engine oil from the overturned boat, slipped through her hands.

Father describes sudden sinking

Hayri Bicer said 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.