Turkey opens on Saturday 26 June construction works of the Istanbul Canal (Kanal Istanbul, in Turkish), an infrastructure of 45 kilometers long that will artificially unite Europe and Asia for the first time in history and open a new navigable route between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara.
A work that the country’s president, Recip Tayip Erdogan, defines as his “crazy project”, as he described it on 2011, when he presented it for the first time in public, while still Prime Minister.
Since then, this ambitious plan inspired by the Panama and Suez canals and which will run parallel to the Bosphorus Strait, has been advancing step by step until the present day , whose works will be celebrated with an official ceremony and will last 7 years, according to local media.
Although it is not a project on which there is consensus in Turkey, as there have been criticisms about its possible social, economic and environmental repercussions.
What is the Kanal Istanbul project like?
The new gap between continents will convert Istanbul, which with more than 12 million inhabitants is the largest city in Turkey, technically at least, on an island.
The new road – according to the Turkish government – will have 19 meters deep and between 250 and 1, meters wide , depending on the sections.
The canal will run in a south-northeast direction through the so-called “Küçükçekmece-Sazlıdere-Durusu corridor” .
Part of the route will run through the Küçükçekmece lake, near to the Sea of Marmara, and will flow into the Black Sea through the Sazlıdere Dam.
One of the busiest shipping routes of the world
The Turkish government defends its project that, it assures, will serve to alleviate traffic of ships through the Bosphorus , one of the narrowest and busiest natural maritime routes in the world.
The canal will be built at a cost of more than $ 8, 000 millions of dollars, according to authorities, and will allow the daily passage of 250 ships, in front of the 73 – 125 traversing 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 Bosphorus,” he said in 2018 the Ministry of Transport of Turkey, at the time of the presentation of the final route of the canal.
On 2016 , about 42, 000 Ships circulated on the only natural navigable route between Europe and Asia. In the same period, 16, 912 ships crossed the Panama Canal and a figure similar sailed through the Suez Canal.
The Bosphorus -with a length of 30 km and a width ranging from 750 m and the 3.7 km- is the only exit to the outside of the Black Sea from Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia and the southern ports of Russia.
On its banks, residential areas and services are planned that will extend the city of Istanbul to the west.
Erdogan’s megaprojects
Urban megaprojects and civil works were in recent years one of the tools used by the Erdogan government to promote the Turkish economy.
Erdogan, leader of the Right-wing Islamist Justice and Development Party has ruled Turkey since 2003, first as first 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 open in 2014 – these are just a sample of the major works policy promoted by the Turkish government.
The environmental risks of the new channel
Kanal Istanbul is without em Bargo the largest of all these infrastructures. Also one of the most controversial.
The project elicited strong criticism, both in terms scientific as ecological, economic and urban.
The mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, has described the Istanbul Canal as a “murderous project”, warning that it will aggravate urban sprawl and will raise money “Undeserved income” at the expense of the environment.
“I have not met any real scientist who has not said that will destroy the [Mar] of Marmara ”, declared the 25 of June.
From an environmental point of view , some scientists warned of the risks that the change of the water salinity level can imply for the coastal ecosystems of both the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara – a lot more salty- as a consequence of the opening of a vi a of new communication.
“ There are two streams in the Bosphorus. It is like when the water and the olive oil are separated. At the bottom of the Bosphorus there is a (denser) current heading north, from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, and on the surface another to the south ”, he told National Geographic Cemal Saydam, professor of environmental engineering at Hacettepe University in Ankara.
“If you decide to unite the two seas, you cannot think about the next five or ten years , or in the next elections, or on the anniversary of the Turkish republic. You have to think in terms of geological time, because once you do this there is no going back ”, said the academic, quoted in a recent article.
“It is not logical ”
Criticisms have also been raised regarding the landscape and social impact of the work, which will affect a wooded area and will foreseeably force to the displacement of about a million people.
“This is the last thing we need for Istanbul and Turkey. I can’t understand how a project like this is planned. It is neither logical nor feasible, ”said urban planner Nuray Çolak, a member of the group Defensa del Bosque del Norte, in an article in Politico magazine.
Çolak also questions the potential impact of the work on the Sazlidere dam, which supplies from drinking water to various districts of the city and will be crossed by the canal.
International Reaction
Since its presentation in society a decade ago, Kanal Istanbul -which will charge a toll to the ships that use it- also raised a debate on whether the project represents a violation of the Montreux Convention, an agreement of 1936 which gives Turkey control of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles and that guarantees the free transit of civilians in times of peace.
Russian President Vladimir Putin would have pointed out the “importance of preserving” the Montreux Convention for “regional stability and security” in a telephone conversation with Erdogan on 9 April.
Russian state news agency Tass also said the project “may undermine Russia’s support for its regional allies” and “threatens” Moscow’s foreign policy.
- The city in which Russia cannot hide its warships
The treaty restricts the passage of military vessels from non-riparian countries of the Black Sea.
Until now, the Turkish Executive has argued that “the Montreux Convention does not it would need no correction as a consequence of the project ”because they are“ different ”matters.
This article was originally posted on 2018 and was updated in June 2021 with the latest news .
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