Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan.17 / Trend, S.Agayeva /
Azerbaijani Embassy in Albania with residence in Greece keeps issue on the fate of the Azerbaijani sailors of the sunken Turkish tanker under control in order to take the necessary measures, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev told Trend on Tuesday.
On the behalf of the Foreign Ministry the Embassy is in close contact with the Coast Guard Service and local authorities of Albania, near coasts of which the Turkish tanker Edirne sank, Abdullayev said.
Turkish tanker Edirne sank after an explosion in cargo tank on Jan. 15, three miles from Albanian Port of Durres in the Adriatic Sea. The tanker unloaded more than 3,000 tons of fuel in the port and was leaving the port.
Transfer of the dead body of the tanker captain - Azerbaijani citizen Khayyam Mammadov (born in 1958), killed in the explosion, will be resolved by day.
Dead body of the captain has been already identified, Saygi Denizcilik ve Elektrik company, which owned the ship, told Trend on Monday.
The company also said that Mammadov's dead body will be transferred to the Azerbaijani side after obtaining permission from the Albanian authorities.
The dead bodies of two Georgian citizens Melkaza Lazishvili (boatswain) and Beki Urushadze (sailor) were also identified.
Azerbaijani sailors Arif Amrahov, Safa Ibrahimov and Ramil Melikov were also in the crew of the vessel, whose state of health is normal.
According to preliminary data, the cause of the explosion was the failure to carry out tank degassing after unloading fuel
Six of 15 crew members of the sunken tanker were Georgian citizens, four Azerbaijani citizens, three Turkish and two Ukrainian citizens.
Tanker Edirne IMO 7704291 with deadweight of 4,112 tons was built in 1980. It was flying the flag of Sierra Leone. The operator of the vessel is Saygi Denizcilik Ve Elektrik.