Turkey's Erdogan launches construction for 'crazy' Istanbul canal project
27 June, 2021
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday poured the first load of cement in the building of what he has called his “crazy project” - a ship canal that runs around Istanbul, bypassing the Bosphorus Strait.
The ground-breaking ceremony at Sazlidere dam, west of the city, marked the beginning of a scheme that is a decade in the making and caused more controversy than any other embarked on during Mr Erdogan’s 18-year rule.
But there are questions over if the project, which envisages a 45 kilometre waterway linking the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea, will be completed in the six-year timeframe.
Among those leading objections to the canal will be the mayor of Istanbul and the first choice of the opposition party he represents.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who heads the Republican People’s Party (CHP), has vowed to abandon the $15 billion plan if Mr Erdogan is ousted in elections because of be held in 2023.
Both he and Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who is widely regarded as a potential presidential applicant in two years, also have threatened to blacklist international finance and construction firms mixed up in project.
“I advise that any [person who] intends to get this done job, who says ‘I will pay because of this project, I will put this country with debt,’ should sit back and think again one thousand times, because in two years’ time no-one will deal with them with respect to the united states,” Mr Imamoglu said last weekend.
The mayor has recently fired an initial shot in what promises to become a protracted war between Mr Erdogan and the canal’s opponents by removing construction workers’ accommodation from land owned by the Istanbul water authority.
Turkish banks registered to the United Nations’ green principles are reportedly reluctant to purchase the project, given the opportunity of cancellation and environmental concerns.
The canal will cut through farms, marshes and some two dozen villages, destroying marine ecosystems and basins that provide almost a third of Istanbul’s fresh water.
Environmentalists have raised the alarm over the result on the Sea of Marmara - already fighting widespread mucilage, or “sea snot”, because of rising water temperatures and pollution.
The close by 8,500-year-old Yarimburgaz archaeological site can be under threat
The government has said tenders will most probably to foreign investors but many say the scheme is a “white elephant” which will only benefit real estate speculators and builders.
The bridge Mr Erdogan inaugurated on Saturday may be the first of six that may cross the canal in a project that will create a fresh urban centre of up to 1.2 million people.
The 860-metre, eight-lane bridge will connect to a new highway linking Istanbul’s new airport and a third Bosphorus bridge - other developments within an infrastructure splurge under Mr Erdogan that have cost tens of vast amounts of dollars.
“Today we are turning a new page in the annals of Turkey’s development,” Mr Erdogan said Saturday. “We see Canal Istanbul as a project to save lots of the future of Istanbul.”
He highlighted the chance of shipping accidents in the Bosphorus before pressing a button release a the first batch of cement for the bridge’s foundations as confetti and fireworks were set off.
Mr Imamoglu, however, called the ceremony an “illusion” and said the bridge was planned years earlier as part of the North Marmara highway that also links the airport and the 3rd Bosphorus bridge.
“Even if there is no such thing as Canal Istanbul on Turkey’s agenda today, this bridge will be built. That is the illusion,” he told a news conference in Sazlidere on Thursday.
“Put simply, the construction of a bridge here has nothing in connection with the canal project. It’s something regarding the street hub.”
Numerous others have questioned the feasibility of the canal and raised suspicions that its main purpose is to profit pro-government businesses that will build luxury homes, shopping centres and a marina alongside the waterway.
“Considering Istanbul Airport and the brand new regions opening to settlement, it is possible to say that the Canal Istanbul proposal can be an integrated rent project,” said Ugur Emek, an economics professor at Baskent University in Ankara.
Nuran Zeren Gulersoy, head of architecture at Istanbul’s Isik University, added: “It is obvious that project … will harm the caliber of life of Istanbul residents and can not make any positive contribution.
“In summary, this is not a transportation project but a residential project a canal passes through.”
Kemal Doksanyedi, from a coalition of NGOs called Either the Canal or Istanbul, described the canal as a political project. “The government requires a project, a vision, before a possible early election,” he said.
Mr Doksanyedi said the president was trying to polarise judgment by pitting Istanbul municipality against the central government.
“The AKP government has always made all types of election propaganda against the opposition and has succeeded through dissent.”
Cemal Saydam, professor of environmental engineering at Ankara’s Hacettepe University, stressed the risk of embarking on this irreversible mega-project.
“Canal Istanbul isn't a project you could say ‘We made a blunder, let’s go back.’ In case you regret it, there is never any heading back,” he said. “Therefore, this project shouldn't happen.”
Source: www.thenationalnews.com