Ankara says construction of Istanbul canal will start this month
Recep Tayyip Erdogan insists controversial project will go ahead.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the construction of the long-awaited Canal Istanbul will start at the end of the month.
The controversial civil engineering project will link the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, cutting 45km through the western outskirts of Istanbul — ostensibly providing transit capacity for 160 vessels a day.
The plan has numerous critics and the major of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu has said the project would “annihilate” water resources for the city’s 16 million inhabitants and cause untold damage to the province’s ecosystems.
