Four Turkish ministers have declined to answer parliamentary questions about a recent expert report detailing significant environmental, cultural and geological risks posed by a controversial project for the construction of an artificial sea-level waterway in İstanbul, Turkish Minute reported, citing the BirGün daily.
Kanal İstanbul, unveiled more than a decade ago by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as his “crazy project,” would carve a 45-kilometer waterway across İstanbul’s European side, connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. Construction officially began in June 2021, but government figures have issued conflicting statements in recent months about whether the work will continue.
Cem Avşar, a lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), submitted written questions regarding an expert reported dated August 22 signed by 21 specialists, to Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Agriculture and Forestry Minister İbrahim Yumaklı, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu and Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum.
The MP asked each minister to address the risks highlighted in their areas of responsibility, including threats to archaeological sites, forests, flora and fauna, agricultural sustainability, inland and marine ecosystems and transport routes.
He also requested clarification on whether Kanal İstanbul will proceed despite these warnings and what concrete steps ministries plan to take to ease public concern.
Despite the gravity of the report’s findings, none of the four ministers responded, according to BirGün.
While Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) government claim the channel is necessary for the safety of İstanbul’s Bosporus Strait, which sees heavy marine traffic, critics of the project argue it is aimed at generating money for pro-AKP circles and will damage the environment and could even worsen the earthquake risk in the city of more than 15 million.
Report warns of water loss, ecological collapse
The experts identify İstanbul’s drinking water supply as one of the most urgent concerns. The report says the Sazlıdere Dam, which currently provides roughly 20 days of the city’s water annually, would become unusable once the canal is completed.
It also warns that Terkos Lake, a major freshwater source in the city’s northwest, would face declining yields because it would no longer be adequately fed by rainwater, making the construction of new dams “inevitable.”
The report concludes that the Küçükçekmece Lagoon would suffer irreversible ecological damage. With the Sazlıdere Dam removed from the system, salinity levels in the lagoon would rise, destroying its unique characteristics and triggering a collapse in biodiversity. Many species currently inhabiting the lagoon “would have no chance of survival,” the experts say.
Further warnings focus on İstanbul’s northern forests, wetlands and migratory bird routes. The project is expected to require the felling of around 200,000 trees and the destruction of roughly 3,000 hectares of forest, eliminating one of the city’s most important carbon-absorbing zones.
The proposed canal corridor also includes 1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-degree archaeological sites and 62 registered cultural assets. The experts argue that the environmental impact assessment provides inadequate safeguards, placing İstanbul’s cultural heritage at “serious risk.”
