ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Fifteen Turkish sailors abducted by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea last month returned to Turkey on Sunday and the captain of the ship described their death threats and their three-week ordeal in ‘ a forest was kept.
The sailors embraced family members when they arrived at Istanbul airport before dawn, where they were greeted by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and other officials, two days after the news of their release in Nigeria appeared.
“We were in a forest. There were difficult conditions. There were constantly armed men on our side,” Mustafa Kaya, captain of the ship “Mozart” from which the crew was abducted, was quoted as saying by the news agency Demiroren.
The Liberian-flagged ship was on its way from Lagos to Cape Town when it was attacked on January 23, 160 km (100 miles) from Sao Tome Island, maritime reports showed. One Azeri sailor was killed in what the crew described as a sophisticated and well-orchestrated attack.
“We did not experience physical violence, but they exerted psychological pressure during the negotiations. They said ‘we will kill you if your business does not do what we want’,” Kaya said.
Kaya said that at the time of their abduction, the crew had locked themselves in a safe room, but that the pirates had to force their way after five hours of fighting.
“They were constantly firing and shooting randomly inside. At that point, one of our colleagues was killed. He was shot in the abdomen. We are very sad,” he said.
The crew was eventually taken by boat and released to a safe place determined by the company. Their release took place two weeks after the attackers made contact to discuss a ransom.
After their release, Levent Karsan of Boden Shipping in Istanbul said that the sailors were all healthy and that it was not a political kidnapping, but only aimed at getting a ransom, with talks handled by a team in Hamburg.
(Reported by Daren Butler; edited by Michael Perry)