On June 26, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the groundbreaking ceremony of the first bridge of the Istanbul Canal Project that the Istanbul Canal will open a historic new chapter in Turkey's development. This also represents the start of the canal project. The canal was dug by hand, so building a bridge first and digging the river later is the right procedure. As the first construction project of the Istanbul Canal Construction Program, the road bridge is one of 6 bridges planned for construction with 8 lanes and a length of 840 meters.
Before Turkey, the Bosphorus (and the west coast of the Black Sea) was part of the Greek cultural circle. Bosphorus means place where cattle jump in Greek. Legend has it that this is where Io jumped. Ian was a priestess of Hera and was taken in by Zeus. Zeus, despite stealing affection everywhere, is afraid of Hera's jealousy, so he turns Ee'e into a cute little white cow. Hera saw through Zeus's ruse, pretended not to know, and insisted that Zeus give her the little white cow as a gift. Zeus had no choice but to cut love. The Herapai Hundred-Eyed Giant Argus watches over Ie, and Io can wander around the seashore, but always under The Watch of Argos. Io's place of visit, named the Ionian Sea, is the sea between the Adriatic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Agos only needed to close his eyes halfway when he slept, so the little white cow could see firmly, and Zeus did not have any opportunity to take advantage of it. Zeus was in a hurry, and sent Helms to play a lullaby, hypnotizing all a hundred of Agos's eyes and taking the opportunity to cut off his head. Hera was angry, and the consequences were severe, and sent a cowfly to sting poor Io to the point of misery. As soon as I was in a hurry, I ran hard, ran all the way to the side of the strait, jumped from the water, and this is the Bosphorus. Legend has it that Io later arrived in Egypt and gave birth to the son of Zeus, who included Cadmus and Europa, and the brothers and sisters returned to Europe. However, Zeus hooked up with Europa, his great-granddaughter, a generation younger than his great-granddaughter. Your circle is really messy.
Hera saw through Zeus's trick of disguising his little lover Ian as a little white cow, pretending to ask the little white cow to come over as a gift, and Zeus was afraid of his wife, so he had to cut love
Since the age of great navigation, maritime transport has been the main force of long-distance transport. After the Black Sea shipping out of the Dardanelles Strait, it can lead to the Countries bordering the Mediterranean or The Atlantic On the one hand, and to the Indian and Pacific countries through the Suez Canal on the other. The Dardanelles Strait is relatively wide and gentle, the Bosphorus Strait is narrow, tortuous, turbulent, the narrowest place is only six or seven hundred meters, and the width is only two thousand meters. The water is very busy, not to mention the big boats, there are many small boats, some are ferries, some are local transport ships, and some are yachts.
The Black Sea was originally an inland sea, but it was actually a freshwater lake. After the Ice Age, the snow melted and the water level soared, and the lake water that snatched the road from here washed out a strait, which is today's Bosphorus. Even today, the salinity of the Black Sea is lower than that of the Mediterranean Sea. The difference in salinity causes the water surface and underwater to flow in opposite directions, so the water flow in the strait is quite turbulent and disorderly. When the "Varyag" aircraft carrier towed through the Bosphorus Strait, Turkey put forward many harsh conditions, the biggest objection is to towing an unpowered steel giant ship across the strait, once the consequences of losing control are unimaginable, this is not unreasonable, nor can it all be blamed on western conspiracies. In this place, powered ships can also get out of control, so there are indeed safety concerns for a large unpowered hull to tow through places with busy sailing and dense houses on both sides of the strait.
As an important waterway, the Bosphorus Is not convenient for navigation, the tonnage and number of ships that can pass through the strait are limited, and there is often a large backlog of merchant ships at both ends of the strait.
The Bosphorus is a busy waterway, with red representing assembled boats waiting to pass
The number of large vessels passing through the Bosphorus (left column) and more than 200 meters in length (right column) in the Bosphorus has been increasing between 2006 and 18
But shipping in the Black Sea-Mediterranean has been increasing rapidly. In the 1930s, the number of passing ships in the Strait was just over 3,000 a year, and now it has reached 45,000, of which more than 8,000 are oil tankers, carrying 145 million tons of crude oil. In other words, the Bosphorus is almost three times more navigable than the Suez Canal. The number of ships expected to pass through in 2050 could be as many as 78,000, while Turkey estimates that the Bosphorus is safe to sail is only 25,000.
On the other hand, it is also the most economically and culturally developed region in Turkey, as it has been since the time of Constantinople to the present.
On both sides of the Bosphorus are upscale residential areas of Istanbul with more than 10 million people, densely populated
It is also a place where historical and cultural heritage gathers
The two sides of the Bosphorus Are also the most developed areas in Turkey, where palaces and mansions were gathered during the Ottoman Empire, and now they are densely populated, and a large number of houses are built directly to the water's edge. In the past, only the European side was prosperous, and after the bridges on both sides of the strait were opened, the Asian side also began to develop. It's like Beijing's Wenjin Street widening into the strait, where more than a hundred large and small ships pass by every day, and as long as one of them slips through, it is an unacceptable loss.
The "Splendid Suleiman" built in Istanbul the Suleimaniye Mosque, which is the largest mosque in Istanbul (the more famous Blue Mosque is better located, but not as large as this one) and was designed by Sainan
Historically, Suleiman the Magnificent, who at the beginning of the Ottoman Empire, proposed the excavation of canals in Istanbul and appointed the greatest architect and civil engineer, Mimar Sinan, who designed the largest Suleimaniye mosque in Istanbul.
At that time, there were not so many ships passing by, and there were not many large and small palaces, mainly for the sake of shipping safety. Since then, there have been at least 6 more motions, all of which have been fruitless. The current Istanbul Canal plan was first announced by Erdogan when he became prime minister in 2011. Construction was scheduled for the second half of 2018 and will be completed in 2023, one hundred years before the founding of the Republic of Turkey, but it now seems to be postponed.
The Canal of Istanbul has a scheme of 5 routes
The last option selected is the scheme corresponding to the red line
The Istanbul Canal is about 45 kilometers long, 20.75 meters deep, 360 meters wide along the river, and 275 meters wide at the bottom of the river, and the ships that can pass through are larger than the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal, which will greatly ease the shipping tension in the Bosphorus.
But there is no such thing as a free lunch. The canal is scheduled to be completed in 6 years at a cost of $15 billion. The funds will be mainly private investment, and after completion, they will obtain the right to operate for a certain number of years, and after maturity, the property rights will be transferred to the government and become public ownership. The canal will also drive employment, employing 80,000-100,000 people during construction and 500-800 staff when completed. The Black Sea outlet of the canal will build a new port, and the canal area will build a new type of earthquake-resistant residential area, as well as supporting high-speed rail lines and highway lines.
Turkey claims that investment in the canal's construction can be quickly recovered from passing vessels, and that canals, ports and related industries are expected to generate $8 billion a year in revenue, but that is where the biggest controversy lies. In 1936, Britain, France, the Soviet Union, Japan, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and Turkey signed the Montreux Convention, which provided for the free passage of merchant ships of peacetime countries and neutral countries in wartime. The Istanbul Canal is not like the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal, if it does not go around thousands of kilometers, there is only one road, taking the canal is not even closer than walking the Bosphorus Strait, how to ensure that the boats that originally walked the Bosphorus for free are now paying to walk the canal, which is a problem.
This is not without precedent. Many cities have toll highways, and in order to avoid congestion, many people would rather spend some money in order to save time. The Montreux Convention also allows Turkey to limit navigation on the Bosphorus Strait on the grounds of navigation safety and hygiene, and to increase the motivation of shipowners to walk the canal. But it's hard to predict how many ship owners will pay to walk the canal.
The length of the Canal of Istanbul (left column) is not large, but the width of the river bottom is larger, and the width of the boats that can pass is even larger
The Istanbul Canal is also of unique strategic importance. The Montreux Convention also provides that, in peacetime, warships of States bordering the Black Sea may freely pass through the Strait, while warships of states not bordering the Black Sea may pass through the Strait as follows:
• The gross tonnage of warships adopted during the same period must not exceed 15,000 tons
• The gross tonnage of vessels staying in the Black Sea shall not exceed 30,000 tons
• The length of stay must not exceed 21 days
• In wartime, if Turkey is neutral, the warships of the belligerents shall not pass through the strait; if Turkey is a belligerent, turkey shall decide whether to allow the passage of warships of other countries
• Under no circumstances shall a warship use carrier-based aircraft when passing through the Strait
With regard to the Montreux Convention, which prohibits the passage of aircraft carriers through the Bosphorus, article 11 of the Treaty provides that any major warship of tonnage in the States bordering the Black Sea may be adopted, except for annex 2, which provides that "ships designed or modified primarily for the purpose of carrying and operating aircraft at sea", but ships carrying aircraft or even flight decks are not necessarily prohibited, such as destroyers with helicopter decks.
The Montreux Convention restricted the passage of German ships during World War II and prevented the passage of American aircraft carriers and amphibious warships after the war. But the Soviet Union referred to the Kiev-class and Kuznetsov-class aircraft carriers as "aircraft-carrying cruisers", and did retain heavy anti-ship missiles in its design, arguing that this was only a missile cruiser with a flight deck and an aircraft carrier, not an aircraft carrier.
The Varyag may be the last aircraft carrier to pass through the Bosphorus, but it may not be the last in the Black Sea?
Turkey chose to acquiesce to the Soviet defence, or else it would have to reopen negotiations on the Montreux Convention, most likely abolished because of the existence of the United Nations Law of the Sea provisions on freedom of navigation, which would not be conducive to Turkey's control of the strait.
Whether the Islamic Boer Canal is subject to the Montreux Convention is indirectly inconsistent. Russia believes it is equally effective because it could continue to restrict access to the Black Sea for U.S. aircraft carriers and NATO navies; Turkey believes it is no longer valid, which could give Turkey greater freedom. In theory, Turkey could allow U.S. aircraft carriers to enter the Black Sea and a larger Western military presence in the Black Sea, without violating the Montreux Convention.
Turkey's relations with Russia are still in disarray. Russia's expansion in the Caucasus and the Black Sea came largely at ottoman costs, and modern Turkey still clashes with Russia from time to time, both in Syria and Armenia. Turkey needs to borrow the power of Europe and the United States to balance Russia. On the other hand, Turkey also needs to borrow Russia's strength to balance Europe and the United States. The canal continues to use the Montreux Convention to give Turkey greater strategic freedom in terms of neutrality and leverage.
Mega-projects are an irresistible temptation for any country, for any country or dynasty. This will not only greatly enhance the prestige and cohesion of the rulers, but also greatly enhance the comprehensive national strength, provided that the project can pass the financing, implementation and operation barriers. For Turkey, these three levels are not easy. Due to the unclear profit prospects, half-public and half-private companies have contributed, but there is still a big gap. The Turkish government has announced that it may use government investment to fill the vacancy. This cannot but affect Turkey's government finances and tax revenues, debts, and affect Turkey's political situation.
Super Engineering also has technical problems with construction machinery and engineering management. The 45-kilometer canal would be a big project if the Chinese were to dig it, but it was just a matter of mobilizing enough excavators and heavy trucks. But Turkey is different, not to mention that it is not easy to mobilize so many mechanical equipment and operating personnel, and it lacks management experience for such large-scale projects. Project delays and overruns are almost necessary.
The operation and profitability of the canal are also a problem.
But this has become Erdogan's political achievement project, has ridden the tiger, can only rush forward.