Kanal Istanbul: Pipedream or Politics ? Actuelles de l'Ifri, July 2011
This paper examines Kanal Istanbul, a plan proposed by recently re-elected Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to bypass the Bosphorus Strait by creating a canal west of Istabul.
Istanbul has a history of grandeur. From the Byzantines to the Ottomans, the city of Istanbul has been designed as, in the words used by Emperor Napoleon, the capital of the world. There was a sense of grandeur, too, when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, announced the construction of a canal to a bypass the Bosphorus Straits, the maritime highway that bisects the City of Istanbul and brings ships from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea and vice versa. Named Kanal Istanbul, Erdogan proposed the project during his re-election campaign less than two months before the general election as a way to relieve stress from Turkey’s prized city and solve some of the nation's most pressing issues.