A second Bosphorus is yet to be built in Istanbul
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been speaking of a “crazy project” developed for İstanbul for months, finally announced the details of the project on Wednesday to reveal that the project would involve the creation of a second strait in the city to minimize the affects of tanker collisions and flooding.
On Wendesday at the Haliç Congress Center in İstanbul, the prime minister publicly announced the details of his long-anticipated crazy project, saying the government would create a new Bosporus in İstanbul. The new project, called Kanal İstanbul, seeks to fortify the city against natural disasters.
The prime minister said this was the project of the century. “İstanbul is the summary of Turkey. It is the heart not only of Turkey with its beauty, but of the entire world. Every service you take to İstanbul is a service done to Anatolia and Thrace and to humanity. Today, we are sharing the excitement of giving a new service to this amazing city.”
He said he has had the project in mind even before he served as mayor of the city. Erdoğan recalled that İstanbul had experienced a major catastrophe when the vessel M/T Independenta, a Romanian oil tanker, collided with a freighter in 1979 at the southern entrance of the Bosporus and exploded. The wreck of the Independenta burned for weeks, causing colossal air and marine pollution in İstanbul. Erdoğan said some past residents of İstanbul had dreamt of the project centuries ago. “I always wondered what we’d do if we had to face such a disaster again. The fire [on Independenta] burned for months. After I became prime minister, we toured the area from the air in helicopters with the transportation minister and mayor. We decided that Turkey had the power to carry out such a project. We have no problem whatsoever in terms of financing. We said Turkey deserves to enter 2023 [which will be the country's 100th anniversary] with such a major, crazy and wonderful project, and we took the step for this.”
He said the project was multi-dimensional, incorporating a variety of areas ranging from energy, transportation, urban planning, employment and even education. “This is an urban planning project, a family project, a housing project. Most importantly, this is an environmental project. It is a project to preserve İstanbul and its environs, its nature, sea and water resources, its green areas and its animal and plant life.”
Erdoğan stressed that the project has been on the table for a long time, adding that he and his team had worked on it meticulously. “To prevent any possible act of unfair practices, I will continue to keep the project’s exact location and its cost secret. I will not announce those details today.”
The prime minister said the location and the cost estimates for the project were more or less certain. “The surveying phase alone will take two years. It is only natural that such a gigantic project will be subject to geographic and cost changes during the process.”
“There are countless cities in the world where rivers pass through. But the only city in the world with a sea through it is İstanbul. With our project, İstanbul is now turning into a city with two seas through it. With this project, two peninsulas and one island will be formed. The Anatolian side is already a peninsula. But now there will be an island, and another peninsula. We are building a canal of approximately 45-50 kilometers in the west of İstanbul between the Black Sea and the Marmara.”
He said the water level of the canal would be about 25 meters, while the width of the water service will be around 150 meters. “The largest vessels of the world will be able to pass through. Land and rail transportation will not be interrupted in any way thanks to bridges we will build over the canal.” He said the earth and rubble from the construction would amount to millions of cubic meters, saying the excavated earth will be used in the construction of a large sea port and airport, adding that working mines near the project site were likely to be shut down. “This project greatly concerns İstanbul, our country and the entire world.”
Erdoğan said that the project will put an end to oil spills and other environmentally damaging accidents in the straits. “Accidents that occur from time to time have turned the Bosporus into hell. We are saving İstanbul, which accounts for 40 percent of Turkey’s national income from such a huge threat, and taking steps to ensure the safety of İstanbul residents and preserve our cultural assets. We are ending commercial traffic in the strait completely with Kanal İstanbul.”
He said 150 vessels on average will pass through the new canal, and the Bosporus will return to its glory as a natural center for water sports and for the city’s internal transportation.
Erdoğan said they also intended to open congress, festival, exhibition centers and sport facilities as well as new housing units. He also gave details on the planned airport, saying they were aiming to establish a new airport with a capacity of handling 60 million flights a year. “The canal area will be an attraction center for tourists, and the project will also turn the Bosporus into a center of attraction. The canal’s water won’t be still water. Kanal İstanbul will not damage İstanbul’s underground or aboveground resources. It will not in any way cause a water shortage problem in İstanbul.”
He also stated that the funding for the project had been secured. “There is absolutely no problem in financing the canal. A large number of scientists and experts from architects to engineers and archeologists will work in the survey phase in the first two years. We will be open to every constructive proposal during this phase. We will work together with our civil society organizations and universities.” Erdoğan said the government will mostly use land owned by the Treasury during the construction of the canal.
CHP response to project
Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu asked, “How is this a new project?” in his initial comments on the prime minister’s revelation. Kılıçdaroğlu said the idea of opening a canal that will connect the Marmara to the Black Sea to bypass the Bosporus strait has been a dream of many since the Ottoman times. “Compare our projects to those of the AK Party [Justice and Development Party]. The human is at the heart of our projects. The happiness of people. We want an order in which not even a single child has to go to bed hungry. Their projects are concerned with how to make their supporters richer, how to win contracts for them.” He said the CHP and the AK Party were as different as black and white in their way of thinking. “We hold the people of our country to be above anything else. This is who we are.” He said he hadn’t had the opportunity to get an aerial tour of the area, but reiterated that the human element cannot be found in any AK Party project. “If there was the human element, two-and-a-half month old Kübra wouldn’t have died of hunger in the arms of her mother. He says he’ll open a canal. First find a solution for Kübra. A two-and-a-half month old child died under their government. He [Erdoğan] could at least apologize. He won’t even do that; go ahead and announce your crazy project. We don’t need crazy men, we need thinking men in this country.”
