Menekşe Nur Akkaya Gökdaş, who survived the sinking of a passenger ship off Kyrenia while eight months pregnant, has given birth to a healthy baby girl. Following the trauma of the disaster, the family abandoned their plan to name her "Deniz", meaning "sea" in Turkish, and chose "Alara" instead. Gökdaş visited the Turkish Grand National Assembly with her 19-day-old daughter and recounted her ordeal to Anadolu Agency.
Gökdaş said she lives in Kyrenia with her husband and that her family had come to visit her; they were travelling together to Turkey for the birth when the accident happened. She said the vessel capsized about 20 minutes after departure. "It capsized and filled with water so quickly that we barely escaped with our lives," she said. Her mother and brother broke a window to get out and her younger sister was pulled through first, while she stayed inside with her father because the window was too small for her. Only when she shouted "I am eight months pregnant, save me" did people reach in and pull her out through a window on the upper side of the ship.
To reach a rescue boat she had to jump into the sea from a height, and while being hauled aboard by rope she suffered a blow to her abdomen and internal bleeding, putting her at risk of premature labour. The rescue boat, which had been rubbing against the ship, then burst and sank as it began to pull away. Gökdaş said she jumped into the sea again and was eventually rescued by hotel boats taking part in the search and rescue effort.
Doctors in the north of Cyprus would not allow her to travel because of the risk of premature birth, so she was flown to Turkey by air ambulance and treated at Umuttepe Hospital in Kocaeli. She delivered on time and in good health. "We were thinking of naming our baby 'Deniz'. After the trauma we went through, we decided not to place such a burden on the child; it would not remind us of good things," she said.
Gökdaş said the ship rocked violently before it sank, comparing it to "a funfair ride". She tried to fasten a seatbelt on her younger sister, but the belts did not work, which she now sees as a stroke of luck, saying they would not have had time to unbuckle it as water flooded in within seconds. She said she believed there were not enough life jackets for everyone; the family found only three nearby, which her parents gave to the children. A life jacket later appeared in front of her and she slipped it around her father's neck, saving him.
Gökdaş said rescuers arrived too late and that people were trapped inside the ship for a long time. "I think everyone could have been saved," she said, adding that she learned from the news after being taken to hospital that nearly 30 people were missing. The baby's grandmother, Feride Akkaya, said the family had come to parliament to thank MHP Kütahya MP Ahmet Erbaş for his support. "We are very sorry for them. But life goes on. We were a family of five, now we are six," she said.
