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Istanbul Canal / Kanal Istanbul

On April 27, 2011, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey announced a plan to relieve dangerously heavy tanker traffic in the Bosphorus Strait by creating a man-made canal through western Istanbul to serve as a new shipping route between the Marmara Sea and the Black Sea. Compared to the Sues Canal, Canal Istanbul is not an impossible project. It is crazy, but not inapplicable. The Suez Canal was dug about 150 years ago and it is 110 kilometers longer than Canal Istanbul that will be about 45-50 kilometers. It will obviously change the landscape in Thrace.

By laying the first stone of the Sazlidere bridge, one of six viaducts that will cross the Istanbul Canal, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan kicked off on 26 June 2021 what he himself calls his "crazy project", the construction of a canal between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, despite low enthusiasm from the Turkish public. Erdogan placed special emphasis on the historical nature of his outsized project. The Turkish president rattled off a series of numbers and hammered home his message: six bridges; 45 kilometres long; 21 metres deep; 30 times safer than the Bosphorus; 90 percent less traffic; six years of construction; a $15 billion budget… The Bosphorus Strait sees too much traffic, Erdogan said. Ships must wait days at times before crossing it, the passage is difficult to navigate for large cargo ships and can lead to accidents, and the only solution is to find another route.

After passing through the canal from the Black Sea, ships would then continue on their normal route through the Marmara Sea and Turkey's less treacherous Dardanelles on their way to the Aegean, the Mediterranean and ultimately to world markets. "With Canal Istanbul, we will bring an end to freight traffic on the Bosporus. And we will give back the Bosporus to Istanbul and Turkey," Erdogan said.

According to news reports, the launching of the project is expected to generate international debate over the implementation of the agreement governing unfettered passage of Black Sea coastal countries’ ships through the Turkish straits – the 1936 Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits. (Navigation Treaty Raises Doubts over PM’s Istanbul Canal, HÜRRIYET DAILY NEWS (Apr. 28, 2011); Great Britain and Northern Ireland – Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits, with Annexes and Protocol (Montreux, July 20, 1936), [1936] LNTSer 221; 173 LNTS 213, WORLDLII League of Nations Treaty Series)

The Convention, which has nine signatory states (Turkey, Bulgaria, France, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Japan (with reservations), Turkey, the former USSR, and the former Yugoslavia), entered into force on July 20, 1936. Under it, the Turkish Straits zone – the Dardanelles (Çanakkale Bogazi, in Turkish), the Sea of Marmora, and the Bosphorus (or Bosporous, Bogaziçi, or Istanbul Bogazi, “Istanbul Strait”) – were returned to Turkish military control. (Montreux Convention). The Dardanelles connects the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara; the Bosphorus links the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea. The Convention regulates the passage of commercial and military vessels through the Turkish Straits, control that occasionally creates tension between Turkey and other signatory states, “particularly Russia, which says Turkey’s strict regulation of the use of the straits slows the passage of tankers.” (Navigation Treaty Raises Doubts over PM’s Istanbul Canal, supra.)

The Turkish newspaper TODAY’S ZAMAN noted that according to Turkey’s Ministry of Transportation, “the number of tankers passing the straits has reached alarming levels and risks of an oil spill would increase as there will be more ships going through the straits after the conclusion of Caspian and Black Sea oil exploration.” However, it added, “finding an alternative route for maritime vessels cannot be an automatic solution to the problem” because of the possible need to revise the Montreux Convention. (Istanbul Canal Project to Open Debate on Montreux Convention, TODAY’S ZAMAN (Oct. 8, 2010).)

While one coastal country diplomat expressed confidence that the Turkish authorities would not take any measures to restrict the right of free navigation through the Straits, others expressed concern about the possibility of the tankers being forced to use the new canal instead of the Straits and to do so for a fee. (HÜRRIYET DAILY NEWS, supra.) One Turkish columnist noted that the Canal Istanbul project is not a new one:

A new transportation canal to be built between the Black and the Marmara seas is a crazy project indeed, but there is nothing new to it. During his tenure as the mayor of the Istanbul greater municipality Erdogan had voiced this dream project as an alternative to Bosporus transportation which was becoming more and more dangerous for the city. Even earlier there were plans to build a thinner canal in order to produce hydroelectricity utilizing water level difference between the Black Sea and the Marmara. (Ker?m Balci, Canal Istanbul and Other Crazy Projects of the Prime Minister, TODAY’S ZAMAN (Apr. 27, 2011).)

“This law [the Montreux Treaty] is only valid for the straits and not for artificial sea passages, like the proposed one for Istanbul,” a Turkish diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity told the Daily News.

“Of course, there are universal rules implemented for passages through manmade canals. They will be valid for the Istanbul Canal as well. Countries could be asked for transit fees,” the diplomat said, adding that ships can pass through the straits for free but sometimes have to wait for days due to weather conditions or heavy traffic.

“If the companies have money and do not want to wait, they could use the second canal after paying the fee,” the diplomat said. “We are of the opinion that many tankers would use the canal, which would of course reduce the traffic on the strait.” Turkey’s former Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim dismissed claims that Turkey would force other countries to use the new canal but said, “New incentives would be created” for its use. “We have no intention to block the passages through the straits,” he told the Daily News.

Minister of Transportation Yildirim announced that the roadmap for the Canal Istanbul project will be put to tender until the end of 2013. Yildirim explained that project also includes a bridge, connecting highways and the development of surrounding neighborhoods.

A report commissioned by the ministry of transport and infrastructure predicts that in 2026, 54,900 ships will sail through the new canal, with that number rising to 68,000 in 2039 – a stark reversal of current tendencies. Over the last decade, the number of vessels going through the Bosphorus fell from 53,000 to 38,000 a year, due to an increased number of pipelines and a decreased dependence on fossil fuels in certain countries. But some observers say that, far from rising, the number of passages is set to continue to fall. Furthermore the passage through the Bosphorus, despite the dangers and long wait lines, will remain free of charge, unlike the new canal.