Il “Crazy Project” - Canale di Istanbul

摘要

It was late April 2011 when “the Crazy Project - Canal Istanbul”udwas proposed by the Prime Minister of Turkey, during his electionudcampaign. The proposed project consisted of construction of anudentirely new city, an airport, a seaport and recreational areas. Butudthe most important and striking element was a new maritimeudtransportation canal which is to be constructed as an alternative toudthe Bosphorus Strait.udAlthough the idea of an artificial canal is not new, since it has beenudinitiated without any consensus between the people and institutionsudin Istanbul, and no scientific or technical study about the feasibilityudand environmental impacts of such a project has been presented,udthe “crazy” project immediately set a large number of debatesudamong scholars and professionals.udThese vary from the legitimacy of decentralization of governance,udto technological and legal possibilities for construction, feasibilityudof the canal in operational terms, potential impacts of the canal onudinternational politics, economy, environment, international relationsudand urban life.udSince the only information about the project was a digital animation,udpresented in the election speech of the Prime Minister, there is littleudinformation about the scope of the project. Such large scaleudinvestments in Istanbul have caused extensive acceleration inudconstruction sector on one hand and social and economic shiftsudon the other.udThe “crazy” project initiated by the ruling party which is known toudbe ambitious in real estate projects has therefore raised hot debatesudacross scholars and professionals. A variety of articles wereudproduced in response, discussing the scope of the project and itsudpotential impacts on the environment, the city of Istanbul, Turkey’sudinternational relations and the economy of Turkey. However, theseudarticles often focused only on the fictional “Canal”, and neglectedudthe full scope of the project. Since the project is ambitious, large,udbut little is known about its exact location and land use pattern, ituddeserves an evaluation with a wider perspective than currentudarticles that may be found in popular science magazines or dailyudnewspapers.udIn this paper, the Canal Istanbul Project is evaluated mostlyudaccording to the speech of the PM, which provides basicudmotivations and claims for the project. The second group of sourcesudis the past ideas and projects of an artificial canal initiated almostud500 years ago. The third group of sources consists of scientific andudjournal articles published in the Turkish media after the speech.udWe try to describe challenges and limitations which the project isudlikely to face by implying a multi-perspective view. Then we speculateudon the implementation approach, basing on the currentudplanning experience and the recently approved Master Plan ofudIstanbul.udThe final discussion on the project is based on benefits/losses ofudIstanbul once the project will be implemented.