8 people got killed. Including my parents and my brother.

On 8th July at 4 am we left the shore. Our dinghy was white/silver and had one engine. We wanted to go to chios Island. The sea was wavy and we had water inside the boat. I was very stressed. Around 6-6:30 we arrived to Inousses Island. We had a number to call and ask for help to register our asylum applications. We called the number and sent them our names and our videos. The person on the phone told us to walk to a church which was 3-4 hours away on foot. We were afraid to be seen by Greek police and get pushed back but since someone already had our information we decided to walk to the center and find help to go to a camp.

After around 50 minutes a red car came and the people inside asked us something in Greek but we did not understand and the car left. After some minutes another car arrived. Two men came out of the car and introduced themselves as police. They were carrying guns and were in uniforms. Among us, one guy was speaking English, and the policeman told him they were going to take us to the camp. It was very difficult to believe them but they were acting very polite. They searched all the men and children and when they wanted to search the women, they said we know you are muslim and we do not want to touch you so if you want we can call for police women to come and check you but it's going to take a while. Unfortunately we trusted them and they searched the women and took all our phones, our money and all our belongings. They were careful and seemed like they were searching for any camera on us. They kept us there for one hour and after that one truck arrived. Two men wearing civilian clothes, carrying guns, took us to the shore. There were 7 or 8 masked men in army uniforms carrying big guns and all the equipment and were covering their faces with balaclavas. Even there, they told us that the vessel will take us to the camp. We were scared and did not know what to do, after maybe 20 minutes a vessel arrived. 8 or 9 masked men in dark blue uniforms were inside. They were between 25-40 years old and all had Greek flags on their shoulders. The vessel was white and had a Greek flag on it. They forced us to get into the vessel and after start going toward Turkey. There we were sure they were gonna push us back.

 

We started asking them to not push us back, children were crying. But masked men start beating us. After 15-20 minutes, it was around 10 in the morning when they stopped in the middle of the sea and threw a life raft into the sea. After they start pushing us down. They were throwing us down like garbage and did not care if someone would have fallen into the sea. They abandoned us at sea in a small dinghy that did not have space for everyone. Maybe there was space for 8 people and we were 27 people. The dinghy was going down and more water was coming inside. The sea was very wavy. I thought this is the end and we are all going to die here. We were in distress, we were scared and shouting for help. I took my shirt out and I was waving it hoping for someone to see us. For 40 to 50 minutes we were waiting and no one was there to help us. Water was coming inside the liferaft, it seemed like the Greek coast guard had opened something from the liferaft because the air was leaving it. I knew how to swim so I decided to jump into the sea and try to push the dinghy toward a small Island that we could see. After getting closer to the island 2 or 3 more men jumped to the sea. I asked the women to take out their scarves and try to make a rope. We were getting close to the island but the sea was very wavy and a strong wind was blowing. When we got very close we lost it, the big waves were hitting us to the big rocks. First I put myself between a rock and the life raft but I could not hold it, we lost the  life raft. The life raft hit the rock and broke down. We were trying to keep the rope and pull people out of the water but the scarf-rope broke. Me and the other guys we saved some people but we could not save everyone. I just managed to get 3 of my brothers out and a few more people. 8 people got killed. Including my parents and my brother. I do not know how long it took, I was not understanding what is happening, I was just trying to take people out. We got out of the water and we saw the dead bodies in the sea. They were not moving anymore.

We stayed there for 2 or 3 hours, we were lost, we were confused and did not know what to do.  We were thirsty and hungry after not eating for 2 days. We decided to walk to the other side of the Island so maybe someone would see us and come to help. We started walking to the hill, we thought that would be shorter but when we got on the hill, I saw the dead bodies in the sea and could not hold myself. I decided to walk down and walk around the island to avoid seeing my parents and my brother’s bodies. Children were crying. We were tired, thirsty and hungry. Most of us had lost our shoes and clothes. On our way to the other side of the island, we saw more life rafts that had hit the rocks there, maybe 8 or 9 more life rafts were there together with a lot of clothes and shoes. We took some of the shoes and clothes and wore them.

We were afraid to see dead bodies on the island because that would mean we would die there. We were walking with horror. My feet were full of scars and my leg was hurting so bad because I had a surgery before in my leg.
When we arrived on the other side in the morning, we saw a fishing boat but it seemed like no one was seeing us. We were shouting and asking for help. When we saw no one was getting close, one of the men with us decided to swim to the closest fishing boat. We tied empty water bottles around him and he started swimming. He managed to reach the fishing boat and the fisherman called the Turkish coast guard. 3 or 4 Turkish vessels arrived together with a helicopter. One of them went to get the dead bodies and they took us back to Turkey. I can never forget what happened there and I will never forgive. Even now every time I am getting thirsty the first thing comes to my mind is that day. We buried the bodies of our parents and brother in the city of Samsun in Turkey. 

 

[Location is approximate]