Body recovered near Kyrenia ferry wreck identified as 12-year-old Miray Bicer

Kyrenia, Cyprus. One of two bodies recovered on Wednesday from waters surrounding the wreckage of a ferry that sank off Kyrenia in August was identified on Thursday as 12-year-old Miray Bicer.

Brother’s body recovered last week

Miray Bicer was from Reyhanli, a town in Turkey’s Hatay province between the Turkish Mediterranean coastal city of Iskenderun and Syria’s second city, Aleppo. She had been aboard the ferry with her five-year-old brother Asaf, her mother Ayten and her father Hayri.

Asaf Bicer’s body was recovered from the wreckage last week. His funeral was held in Reyhanli last Thursday. Both parents survived the accident.

Parents recount the sinking

Speaking the day after the ferry sank, Ayten Bicer said her daughter had pleaded with her not to let go.

Her daughter was “saying, ‘don’t let go’, and I didn’t let go of my daughter,” she said.

“I swear, I didn’t let her go,” she added, with tears streaming down her face. She said a suitcase fell on her, forcing her daughter from her grasp.

Ayten Bicer said she then grabbed her daughter’s foot, but the girl’s shoes, coated in engine oil from the overturned boat, slipped through her hands.

Hayri Bicer said everything happened suddenly.

“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 “it was slipping like oil” and “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, indicating the collar of her T-shirt. He was “saying, ‘Baba’”, she added.