5 Nisan 2020 Pazar
TNT Coronavirus Edition: Accidental Turks in Athens
türkçe links to original Turkish article
(Milliyet Newspaper, 5 April 2020)
Other Accidental Turks in 1865 click here for a TNT
series about two Ottoman ships' voyage to Cadiz, where
they were stuck for 6 months. Subsequently, the ships
strayed in Atlantic storms to Rio de Janiero but
ultimately reached their original desination, Basra in
Iraq, in 1866.
The ROPAX (passengers and cargo) ship 'Elefterios Venizelos' that is
being held in quarantine in Greece because of the coronavirus outbreak,
is carrying 383 people - its crew and hotel workers. The ship's manager
Vedat Uğurlu related the ship has so far visited three countries in an
effort to discharge its passengers.
The 176-meter-long 'Elefterios Venizelos' departed Çeşme, near Izmir,
en route to Cadiz, Spain, on 9 March but got caught up in Spain's
coronavirus embargo. After roaming the seas between Turkey and
Greece for 23 days, the ship was finally allowed to dock at Athens's
port of Piraeus, where it remains in quarantine.
Uğurlu spoke with Milliyet and he explained that 375 of those on
board are not tourists but, rather, hotel workers like waiters, bartenders,
cleaners, cooks, receptionists and technicians from Turkey and other
countries. Continuing, Uğurlu said that "we reached Cadiz on 14
March but we couldn't dock because of the coronavirus situation. So
we returned to Çeşme, where the authorities wanted us to discharge
the Turks on board at sea but that's not possible with a ROPAX ship."
"Finally, Greece agreed to accept us and we went there on 22 March.
I rented two planes to take the hotel workers to Istanbul and Ukraine.
However, the same day Greece announced that no one could go out on
the streets. Concurrently, our quality director Remy Kim, a Swiss
citizen who is 72-years-old and has chronic heart problems, became
ill. We were able to discharge him from the ship, along with an
Indonesian."
"There is no one on our ship with coronavirus symptoms or a
temperature above 36 degrees (96.8 F). But after the Greek Deputy
Minister for Citizen Protection announced that indications of the
virus were found on 119 people on the ship, most of the other
passengers will be settled into local hotels, with those remaining
on board quarantined for 14 days. Baseless reports that are being
circulated should be ignored and only official statements heeded.
Operations manager Orkan Kayrlı remains on the ship and he is in
contact with the Turkish Consulate General."
'Eleftherios Venizelos''s sister ship suffered the same fate in
South Africa. (Figure the odds...)
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