Refugees |

Turkish Coast Guard Released Photos And Videos Of M/V Doğan Kartal

22 Mar 2015

Two Type 80 class Coast Guard vessels use their water canons to stop the vessel. Photo: Official Turkish Coast Guard photo.

Detailed information has been published by Turkish Coast Guard on their intervention on the freighter M/V Doğan Kartal on 12 March 2015.

The Coast Guard was informed that this ship loaded with refugees was sailing on Marmara Sea heading to the Çanakkale Strait. Coast Guard vessels reached the vessel near Şarköy but the ship refused to stop and tried to get away. It was only close to Gelibolu about 22 nautical miles south-west when M/V Doğan Kartal was stopped by firing upon it.

The released videos and photos show that it was a very dangerous operation. Various tactics including hosing pressured water into the bridge of M/V Doğan Kartal was tried before using the machine guns. The Type 80 class boats of Turkish Navy have one water cannon.

The videos and the photos show that every aspect of the operation was recorded by each boat.

This is the video posted on the Turkish Coast Guard website.

This is another video from the operation. This show the firing upon the ship.

The videos show that the passengers(!) of M/V Doğan Kartal were hostile to the Coast Guard crews. It is a very delicate act of force to stop a ship fully loaded with unfriendly people without hurting them at all. I think in the end it was a job well done by our coast guard.

Filed under Turkish Coast Guard Tagged with Dardanelles, Refugees, Turkey

Turkish Coast Guard Fires On M/V Doğan Kartal

14 Mar 2015

M/V Doğan Kartal, seen here in Bosphorus in 2009 photo. Photo: marinetraffic.com

On 12 March 2015, Turkish Coast Guard vessels chased the cargo ship M/V Doğan Kartal in the Çanakkale Strait and forces the ship to stop by firing on her engine room.

According to AIS data from marinetraffic.com website, the Turkish flagged 59 metre long ship has departed from Istanbul on 11 March 2015. It is not know to me where the hundreds of Syrian refugees have come on board.

When the ship has passing through the Çanakkale Strait on 12 March, Turkish Coast Guard hailed the ship and wanted to perform on board inspection. According to news reports the captain of the ship refused the VBSS inspection and did not stopped the ship. This started a chase of the M/V Doğan Kartal by coast guard vessels in Çanakkale Strait. The Strait was closed for transit traffic during the chase.

The stubborn ship was forced to stop when a coast guard vessel fired on her engine room which disabled the steering of the ship. It was not disclosed which boat fired with what kind of weapon. But the photo below shows at least two Type 80 class patrol boats with one 40 mm gun and two 12,7 mm machine guns. So it may be assumed that M/V Doğan Kartal was hit by a 40 mm projectile.