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Turkey inaugurates Saturday June 26 construction work on the Istanbul Canal (Kanal Istanbul, in Turkish), a 45-kilometer-long infrastructure that will artificially link Europe and Asia for the first time in history and will open a new navigable route between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara.
A work that the president of the country himself, Recip Tayip Erdogan, defines as his “crazy project”, as he described it in 2011, when he presented it for the first time in public, when he was still Prime Minister.
Since then, this ambitious plan inspired by the Panama and Suez canals and which will run parallel to the Bosphorus Strait, progressed step by step until today, whose work will be celebrated with an official ceremony and will last 7 years, according to local media.
Although this is not a project on which there is consensus in Turkey, as there have been criticisms of its possible social, economic and environmental repercussions.
What does the Kanal Istanbul project look like?
The new divide between the continents will transform Istanbul, which with over 12 million inhabitants is Turkey’s largest city, at least technically, into an island.
The new road – according to the Turkish government – will have 25 meters deep and between 250 and 1,000 meters wide, according to the headings.
The canal will run in a south-northeast direction across the so-called “Küçükçekmece-Sazlidere-Durusu corridor“.
Part of the route will cross Lake Küçükçekmece, near the Sea of Marmara, and flow into the Black Sea via the Sazlidere Dam.
One of the busiest sea routes in the world
The Turkish government defends its project which, he assures, will serve to reduce maritime traffic on the Bosphorus, one of the narrowest and busiest natural sea routes in the world.
The canal will be built at a cost of more than 8,000 million dollars, according to the authorities, and will allow the daily passage of 185 ships, against 118-125 which cross the Bosphorus today.
“The main objective of this project is to reduce the risks posed by the passage of ships loaded with hazardous materials through the Bosporus,” said the Turkish Ministry of Transport in 2018, during the presentation of the final route of the canal.
In 2016, around 42,000 ships traveled on the only natural waterway between Europe and Asia. During the same period, 16,800 ships passed through the Panama Canal and a similar number crossed the Suez Canal.
The Bosphorus, 30 km long and 750 m to 3.7 km wide, is the only exit outside the Black Sea from Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia and southern Russian ports.
On its banks, residential areas and services are planned which will extend the city of Istanbul to the west.
Erdogan’s megaprojects
In recent years, urban and civil works megaprojects have been one of the tools used by the Erdogan government to boost the Turkish economy.
Erdogan, leader of the right-wing Islamist Justice and Development Party ruled Turkey since 2003, first as Prime Minister and, since 2014, as President of the country.
A new airport in Istanbul or the third bridge over the Bosphorus and the Eurasia tunnel between Europe and Asia – both inaugurated in 2016 – are just a sample of the major works policy promoted by the Turkish government.
The environmental risks of the new canal
Kanal Istanbul is however the largest of all these infrastructures. One of the most controversial too.
The project has aroused strong criticism, in scientific, ecological, economic and urban terms.
Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu called the Istanbul canal a “killer project”, warning that it will exacerbate urban sprawl and generate “undeserved income” at the expense of the environment.
“I haven’t met any real scientist who hasn’t said that [el Canal de Estambul] will destroy the [Mar] of Marmara, ”he said on June 19.
From an environmental point of view, some scientists have warned of the risks that the change in the salinity level of the water for the coastal ecosystems of the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara – much saltier – following the opening of a new communication route.
“There are two streams in the Bosphorus. It’s like when the water and olive oil are separated. At the bottom of the Bosphorus, there is a (denser) current moving north, from the Mediterranean to the Netro Sea, and on the surface another towards the south, ”Cemal Saydam, professor of environmental engineering at Hacettepe University. Ankara.
“If you decide to unite the two seas, you cannot think of the next five or ten years, nor the next elections, nor the anniversary of the Turkish republic. there is no hindsight, ”said the academic, quoted in a recent article.
“It is not logical”
Criticism has also been leveled at the landscape and social impact of the works, which will affect a wooded area and result in the foreseeable displacement of around one million people.
“Esto es lo último que necesitamos para Estambul y para Turquía. No puedo entender cómo se plantean un proyecto así. No es lógico ni realizable”, afirmó en un artículo de la revista Politico el planificador urbano Nuray Çolak, miembro del grupo Defensa del Bosque North.
Çolak also wonders about the potential impact of the works on the Sazlidere dam, which supplies potable water to different parts of the city and will be crossed by the canal.
International reaction
Since its introduction to the company a decade ago, Kanal Istanbul – which will impose a toll on the ships that use it – has also raised debate over whether the project is a Montreux Congress, an agreement of 1936 which gives Turkey control of the Bosporus and Dardanelles and which guarantees the free transit of civilians in peacetime.
Russian President Vladimir Poutine is said to have underlined “the importance of preserving” the Montreux Convention for “regional stability and security” during a telephone conversation with Erdogan on April 9.
Russian state news agency Tass also said the project “could undermine Russia’s support for its regional allies” and “threaten” Moscow’s foreign policy.
The treaty restricts the passage of military ships from countries outside the Black Sea.
So far, the Turkish executive has argued that “the Montreux Convention would not need any correction as a result of the draft” as these are “different” issues.
* This article was originally published in 2018 and was updated in June 2021 with the latest news.
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