Sinan Ulgen, Columnist

Choppy Waters For Turkey’s Latest Megaproject

Erdogan has invested a great deal of personal prestige in the Canal Istanbul plan.

January 21, 2020 at 5:00 AM UTC

Sinan Ulgen is the executive chairman of Istanbul-based think tank EDAM and a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels.

Staying in the lane. — Staying in the lane.
Photographer: Bulent Kilic/AFP

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

Could a new infrastructure project shape the future of Turkish politics? That is one of the questions surrounding Canal Istanbul, a plan to link the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, bypassing the Straits of Bosphorus.

The $15 billion project, championed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, aims to create an alternative route for shipping, to protect Istanbul from environmental disasters that could result from accidents involving dangerous cargoes. But if completed, it would bring other political and economic benefits to the government in Ankara.