Call for a protest march to the groundbreaking of Canal İstanbul

* Photo: Northern Forests Defense

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Either Canal or İstanbul Coordination, an umbrella platform of the people and organizations objecting to the Canal İstanbul project, has made a call for a protest march to the groundbreaking of the project.

Upon the call of the Coordination, the ones who want to join the protest will meet at the Özgürlük (Freedom) Square in İstanbul's Bakırköy on June 26 at 2 p.m. and march to Sazlıdere area at the outskirts of the city where the groundbreaking of Canal İstanbul will reportedly take place.

According to the statement of the Either Canal or İstanbul Coordination, it is not true that the groundbreaking ceremony to be also attended by President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on June 26 is for the Canal İstanbul project.

The Coordination has said that "the groundbreaking ceremony will be held for a section of the Nakkaş-Başakşehir road, one of the linking roads of the Northern Marmara Highways, passing over Sazlıdere."

Against this backdrop, the group will gather in Bakırköy Özgürlük Square on June 26 and march in protest to the area.

'A perception of fait accompli'

The statement of the Coordination has noted that "there is an attempt to create a perception of fait accompli by saying, 'We are breaking the ground for the Canal'." It has said that "there is a desire to realize another section of a treasury guaranteed project of unearned income which destroys the agricultural fields, water basins and forests of İstanbul."

"This bridge is planned to pass over a non-existent canal," the statement of the platform has emphasized, adding, "We want neither a groundbreaking of a canal nor a highway bridge in a water basin."

Calling on people to join the protest march, the Coordination has said, "Join so that we will stop, join so that we will save İstanbul."

What happened?

In his statements in 2021 so far, President and AKP Chair Erdoğan has been frequently talking about the Canal İstanbul project, an artificial sea-level waterway between the Black Sea and Marmara Sea.

Most recently, it has been announced that the groundbreaking ceremony will be held for the project on June 26, 2021.

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) İstanbul MP Gökhan Zeybek has made a statement about the construction site set up in Sazlıdere shortly after Erdoğan's announcement of the ceremony.

The MP has said that the construction in question has nothing to do with Canal İstanbul, underlining that "it is the foundation of the bridge that will be constructed for a linking road of the Northern Marmara Highway."

The MP has further indicated that the bridge in question will be built between the second and third bridges to ease the burden caused by articulated lorries. "It is constructed for a road which is planned to extend from Çatalca - Nakkaş to Başakşehir," he has added.

The state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) has reported that foundations for the 1,618-meter cable-stayed bridge, the first to be constructed along the route of the canal, will be built to provide a crossing around Sazlıdere in Edirne province as part of the Northern Marmara Highway Project's Başakşehir-Bahçeşehir-Nakkaş section, including connecting roads.

The company to undertake the construction of the first bridge of the project has been indicated as the Rönesans Group. The company has so far undertaken several state projects, including the construction of the Presidential Complex in the capital city of Ankara.

The bridge, whose main span is set to be 440 meters long, will have 136 stay cables, 272 anchorages, and four lanes of traffic in both directions. The bridge's 196-meter towers will be built with "diamond" geometry.

NOTE: Life defenders and several occupational organizations as well as the opposition, including İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, have been objecting to the project that foresees an artificial sea-level waterway between the Black Sea and Marmara Sea, which has been recently troubled with the mucilage or 'sea snot' problem.

(TP/SD)