Pilgrimages stranded in Trabzon need immediate help

Trabzon – The Caucasian Muslim pilgrimages who were left stranded at the

port of

Trabzon , a Black Sea city of , while they sought a way back to their countries from Saudi Arabistan are increasingly in need of immediate help due to a still-in-effect suspension of navigation to

Sochi , where public officers at the port are on their Christmas holidays.

Khalid Aliyev, 67, died of a heart attack after he was hospitalized in Trabzon . His death was followed by hospitalization of 30 different Caucasian Muslim pilgrimages.
With the arrival of the last group of Caucasian Muslim pilgrimages in the city, the number of the stranded pilgrimages is expected to reach 3,000 or so. 

Trabzon Governor says precautions are taken

The Muslim pilgrimages of , Dagestan and Ingushetia are accommodated in busses, hotels, guesthouses and in convenient parts of the building of Trabzon Port ‘s Managerial Office. Trabzon’s Governor Nuri Okutan met with the Caucasian Muslim pilgrimages at the Trabzon Port and asked to be further informed by authorities about the situation. Gov. Okutan ate his lunch together with the Muslim pilgrimages here in the dining hall of the Port’s Managerial Office, where he mainly talked to reporters after the lunch about the suspension of work in the Russian customs offices and its effects:
"We are hosting the Caucasian Muslim pilgrimages in Trabzon . We have taken every precaution here at the Port to make them as comfortable as possible: the pilgrimages are served fresh food, tea and coffer. There are still further pilgrimages coming. We expect the total number of pilgrimages to reach 3,000. The newcomers will also be hosted here in guesthouses. We also talked to officials of some hotels to arrange for accommodation of some of the pilgrimages to come. There seems to no trouble facing us for now. The pilgrimages are provided a 24-hour health care. They have had an exhaustive travel back to Trabzon from . Some of them are suffering from flue because of the cold weather. They are taken care of."   

remains indifferent to our demands

Gov. Okutan also said that they attempted to have talks at ministerial level with Russian officials: "Turkish Foreign Ministry officials tried to contact Russian officials of the same department. We tried to contact the officials of Russian Consulate. There is nothing much done, however. We have taken every precaution to be safe; we have the ships at our disposal that will carry the Caucasian Muslim pilgrimages to Sochi as soon as Russian officials confirm our demand." (Agency Caucasus )