A woman and three children are reportedly missing after a boat carrying several Turkish asylum seekers capsized in Evros river along the natural border between Greece and Turkey. the boat was reportedly carrying 9 people, all Turkish citizens fleeing purge.
“A boat carrying Turkish purge victims was capsized on Evros River, Greece, a mom and 3 kids lost in flood, a kid was wearing life west, they all may be alive, rescue units must be urgently deployed to area @UNHCRGreece @Refugees_Gr,” Turkish journalist Cevheri Guven, Editor in chief of progressive NOTKA magazine tweeted on Thursday morning.
A boat carrying Turkish purge victims was capsized on Evros River, Greece, a mom and 3 kids lost in flood, a kid was wearing life west, they all may be alive, rescue units must be urgently deployed to area @UNHCRGreece @Refugees_Gr pic.twitter.com/xU3jM8wt1B
— Cevheri Güven (@cevheriguven) July 19, 2018
“Writer Cemil Tokpinar claimed the same day that Greek border police located the missing people on an islet in the river,” tugkeypurge website notes adding that “several other Twitter users wrote that 6 other people on the boat were rescued.”
According to Greek state ERT TV, the boat capsized some time after midnight and the total number of passenger on the boat was 9. They were all reportedly Turkish citizens.
UPDATE: Despite the search and rescue operation, neither the woman nor the three children have been found by Thursday afternoon.
Accoridng to website BOLD, the boat overturned when one of the children fell into the water. The father immediately jumped to save his child causing the boat to overturned. The father survived.
The missing are: mother Hatice Akçabay, 36, children Ahmet Esat,7, and Mesut, 5, as well as baby Bekir Aras, 12 months old.
Thousands of people have fled Turkey due to a massive witch-hunt launched by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government against sympathizers of the Gülen movement in the wake of a failed coup attempt on July 15. The government accuses the movement of masterminding the coup while the latter denies involvement.
On Feb 13, at a teacher and her two children were drowned and least three people five more people were missing after a boat carrying a group of eight capsized in the Evros River while seeking to escape a post-coup crackdown in Turkey.
In April, a 35-year-old Turkish mother died in Athens of heart attack.
In an effort to flee Erdogan’s purge, the woman had walked from Turkey to Greece together with her three children. She was carrying the youngest, a toddler of 3 years, on her back all the long way.
