News: Hijacked Tanker Olib G Held For 1 Year

One year has passed since 3 Turkish & 15 Georgian sailors were kidnapped on a Greek-owned ship off Somalia.

Source: Hürriyet Daily News

While the families say they cannot get any response for their calls, government officials say the situation is deadlocked between countries.
The families of three Turkish sailors who were kidnapped a year ago by Somali pirates remain fraught with worry at their lack of contact with their loved ones and the slow pace of ransom negotiations.

Malta-flagged, Greek-owned Olib G (Source: convenientflags.blogspot.com)

“We are just waiting,” Aysel Aricioglu, the wife of kidnapped sailor Mustafa Aricioglu, told the Hürriyet Daily News this week.
The three Turkish sailors, along with 15 Georgian colleagues, were kidnapped on Sept. 8, 2010, when Somali pirates captured their ship [Olib G], which is Greek-owned but flies a Maltese flag, in the Straits of Aden.

The members of the ship were allowed to call their families immediately after their capture, but they have been unable to communicate with them since April 2011, according to relatives.
Family members say they have tried to contact the prime minister and government officials in Turkey and Greece on the issue, yet there has been no response.
Banu Özçelik Göçtü, the sister of Fuat Özçelik, told the Daily News that she hoped her brother was still alive.
“We learned that Turkish state has some diplomatic tension with Greece and therefore there has been no official attempt to save the sailors. But we are still hoping,” she said.

Officials from the Turkish Foreign Ministry told the Daily News on Wednesday that they were aware of the issues but added that since the ship was Greek-owned, a sea operation to rescue the hostages could only be conducted under Athens’ auspices.
“We spoke to Greek officials several times and told them the situation. However, it is up to them to decide whether the ship can be saved or not,” according to an official speaking on condition of anonymity.
The ship was sailing for India, where it was to be bought. After the hijacking, however, the prospective buyer backed out of the deal while the Greek owner went bankrupt, the official said. “It is now up to Greece to decide whether to make a move or not.”
Still according to former diplomat Inal Batu, Turkey could push the issue more.
“The Turkish Foreign Ministry should push Greece again and again. If that still doesn’t work, NATO could do an operation. Turkey should push for this as well,” he told the Daily News.

Before contact was cut off, the sailors’ relatives said the men’s conditions had been worsening.
“In the beginning my brother called us and said they were being treated fine,” Göctü said. “Yet, in every other phone call, his voice worsened and finally he stopped calling.”

The relatives of the other kidnapped sailors related similar stories. “First, he sounded fine and we thought he would be saved. Yet, as the days passed, they started saying [that their captors] didn’t give them food or that [the captors] were beating them. They said the pirates were becoming very aggressive,” said Füsun Öztürk, the wife of Yakup Öztürk, who has been a sailor for the past eight years. According to the relatives, the ship was quite old and was not even carrying a load when it was hijacked.

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