Turkey commemorates 1942 refugee ship disaster
Foreign Ministry remembers those who lost their lives after Soviet submarine torpedoed ship carrying Jewish refugees
ANKARA
Turkey commemorated on Friday the victims of the Struma disaster of 1942, when a vessel carrying an estimated 769 Jewish refugees was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine off the cost of Istanbul's Sile.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu told reporters, "Turkey feels the responsibility of passing along the memory of this tragedy to future generations, in line with its sensitive approach towards humanitarian tragedies."
On Feb. 24, 1942, the Struma -- a vessel which departed from Constanta in Axis-allied Romania -- sank after it was torpedoed in international waters of the Black Sea.
The Istanbul Governorship also held a ceremony in memory of the victims in the province's Sarayburnu port in Fatih district. It was attended by the Israeli consul-general in Istanbul, Shai Cohen, and representatives of the Jewish community in Turkey.
During the ceremony, Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin described the Struma disaster as "one of the saddest incidents of our recent history", saying "we still feel the pain in our hearts."
The disaster killed 768 people -- including 103 children -- who had been fleeing the Holocaust. There was only one survivor, 19-year-old David Stoliar, who passed away in 2014 at the age of 91.
*Reporting by Zuhal Demirci; Writing by Fatma Bulbul
