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World

Turkish man strikes up 37-year friendship with swan

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EDIRNE, Turkey (AP) — An unusual friendship between a Turkish man and a swan he rescued has endured for decades.

Retired postman Recep Mirzan found Garip, a female swan, 37 years ago in Turkey’s western Edirne province.

Mirzan and a group of friends were taking a shortcut in their car when they noticed the swan, with a broken wing, in an empty field. Mirzan immediately took the swan in to protect her from predators and kept her in the car until that afternoon, when he was able to take the swan to his home.

Since then, Garip has lived on the man’s farm in the Karaagac region, bordering Greece.

Garip follows Mirzan whenever she is out of her pen, accompanying him when he is doing his chores around the farm or for his evening walks.

“Since I love animals, I said to myself that I should take her home instead of leaving her as prey to foxes,” Mirzan told The Associated Press, recounting the day he took Garip in. “We got used to each other. We never separated.”

Mirzan named the swan “Garip,” which translates as “bizarre” but is also used to describe those who are down on their luck.

After Garip’s broken wing healed, the swan stayed with Mirzan and also befriended the cats and dogs in the area.

Garip spends most of her time out of her pen and has never tried to run away from Mirzan’s farmstead.

A widower with no children, the 63-year-old Mirzan says Garip has been loyal to him and chose to stay at his side. Mirzan considers the swan his child.

Living with Mirzan has obviously been beneficial for Garip. According to the U.K.-based Swan Sanctuary, the average lifespan for a swan in the wild is 12 years. It says that, in protected environments, they can live up to 30 years.

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Badendieck reported from Istanbul.

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World

Pirates off Nigeria’s coast kidnap 15 sailors in attack on Turkish container ship Mozart

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One sailor, an Azerbaijani citizen, was killed in the raid, while those kidnapped are from Turkey, according to the respective governments and a crew list seen by Reuters.

Accounts from crew, family members and security sources described a sophisticated and well-orchestrated attack, in which armed pirates boarded the ship and breached its protective citadel, possibly with explosives.

Three sailors remain on the Mozart ship, which by Sunday evening was receiving assistance in Gabonese waters off central Africa.

“The ship is in our waters and our sailors are assisting a few nautical miles from Port Gentil,” said Gabon’s presidency spokesman Jessye Ella Ekogha, without providing further detail.

The Liberian-flagged vessel was headed to Cape Town from Lagos when it was attacked in the Gulf of Guinea, 160 kilometers (100 miles) off Sao Tome island on Saturday, maritime reports showed.

The ship’s fourth captain, Furkan Yaren, had been “cruising blindly” toward Gabon with damage to the ship’s controls and only the radar working, according to state-run news agency Anadolu. The pirates beat crew members, and left him with an injured leg while another still aboard the ship had shrapnel wounds, Yaren said.

Turkish media cited Istanbul-based ship owner Boden company as saying the owners and operators of the vessel were abducted at gunpoint. Boden was not immediately available.

Ambrey, a security company, said four armed men boarded the Mozart and entered the citadel — where crew are advised to hide in any attack — from a deck atop the cabin.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s office said on Sunday he was orchestrating officials in the “rescue of kidnapped ship personnel.” Erdogan spoke twice by phone with Yaren, who remained aboard after the attack, his office said.

Edward Yeibo, a Nigerian Navy commander, said he was not aware of the attack and was seeking details. The Lagos naval command office and a spokesman for Nigeria’s maritime regulator were not immediately available.

Game changer

Pirates in the Gulf, which borders more than a dozen countries, kidnapped 130 sailors in 22 incidents last year, accounting for all but five of those seized worldwide, according to an International Maritime Bureau report.

The attack on the Mozart could raise international pressure on Nigeria to do more to protect shippers, which have called for tougher action in recent weeks, analysts said.

“The fact that someone died, the number of people taken and the apparent use of explosives to breach the ship’s citadel means it is a potential game-changer,” said David Johnson, CEO of the UK-based EOS Risk Group.

“It’s clearly quite sophisticated and if pirates have decided to use munitions it’s a big move,” he said. There is “no doubt” those kidnapped will be taken back to Nigeria’s Delta and Turkey will have little hope stopping it, he added.

Turkey’s foreign ministry said the pirates had not made any contact with Ankara.

Seyit Kaya, brother of the ship’s kidnapped 42-year-old captain Mustafa Kaya, a father of two, said in an interview he awaited details from the ship’s owner on any possible ransom.

“Since that area is where many attacks take place, they take cautions against pirates,” said Kaya, who is also a sailor.

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World

Pirates attack Turkish ship off W. Africa; kill 1, kidnap 15

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Armed pirates attacked a Turkish cargo ship off the West African coast, kidnapping 15 sailors and killing one of them, officials said Sunday as Turkey sought to recover the captured crew.

The Liberian-flagged M/V Mozart was sailing from Lagos, Nigeria, to Cape Town in South Africa when it was attacked Saturday morning 100 nautical miles (185 kilometers) northwest of the island nation of Sao Tome and Principe.

Turkey’s Maritime Directorate said the crew initially locked themselves in a safe area but the pirates forced entry after six hours. During the struggle, one crew member aboard died. It identified the victim as engineer Farman Ismayilov of Azerbaijan, the only non-Turkish crew member.

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After kidnapping most of the crew, the pirates left the ship in the Gulf of Guinea with three sailors aboard, state-run Anadolu news agency said. According to reports, the pirates disabled most of the ship’s systems, leaving only the navigation system for the remaining crew to find their way to Gabon’s Port-Gentil.

The Gulf of Guinea, off the coasts of Nigeria, Guinea, Togo, Benin and Cameroon, is the most dangerous sea in the world for piracy, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

Maritime security consultancy Dryad Global described the attack as “an exceptional incident for both its severity and distance from shore.” Last year, boardings in the waters off West Africa rose to 18 from 13 in 2019, the London-based firm added.

Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, said he had spoken to the senior officer remaining on the Mozart, Furkan Yaren, and that the morale and physical condition of the sailors aboard was good.

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“We are continuing coordinated negotiations for the release” of the abducted sailors, he said. “The pirates have yet to make any response.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has twice spoken to Yaren, his office said in a tweet. It added that Erdogan issued orders for the recovery of the kidnapped crew.

“The owners and operators of the M/V Mozart, which was hijacked at gunpoint in the Gulf of Guinea, have regretfully confirmed that one of its crew has been killed and others abducted,” Istanbul-based Boden Maritime said.

Among the captives is the ship’s captain, Mustafa Kaya, 41. His brother Seyit, of Istanbul, said the sailors’ families had been called by Erdogan.

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“We hope we see them free, unharmed soon,” he said. “Everybody is trying. We pray for our brothers.”

In July 2019, 10 Turkish seamen were kidnapped off the coast of Nigeria. They were released less than a month later.

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