Page 5 - EurOil Week 19 2021

EurOil COMMENTARY EurOil

Turkey’s “crazy” canal

The public rationale for the project, though, has little to do with security. Its ostensible logic

is instead rooted in the Bosporus’s key role in international trade

TURKEY TURKEY has signalled that it intends to start between the Aegean and Black seas and given
work this year on its long-discussed Kanal Istan- Turkey geopolitical heft in the region.
bul project, an artificial canal connecting the The convention stipulates that all merchant
Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. The project ships must be given free passage during peace-
has faced controversy within Turkey for its cost, time through the “Turkish straits” – that is, the
environmental impact and potential for corrup- Bosporus through Istanbul and the Dardanelles
tion. But its international implications could further to the southwest that separate the Sea of
be substantial as well, threatening the delicate Marmara from the Aegean Sea. It also restricts
regional military balance and impacting mari- the movement of military vessels, limiting them
time trade with the Caucasus and Central Asia. to 15,000 tonnes or under, with additional curbs
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in early on the size and type of weaponry they can carry,
April that a tender would be issued and prelimi- and places a limit of 21 days in the Black Sea for
nary construction work would begin this year on military vessels from countries not bordering
the 45-kilometre ship canal. the sea.
Plans for the canal were first unveiled by Following the admirals’ letter, Erdogan
Erdogan, then prime minister, in 2011 in what he responded that Turkey remains committed to
himself described as a “crazy project.” Its stated the Montreux Convention. But he also con-
purpose is to create a safer transit route for oil firmed that the Turkish government sees the
tankers to transport crude from the Black Sea planned canal as not subject to the convention’s
to global markets, which now traverse the nar- regulations.
row, occasionally treacherous Bosporus straits That admission could give credence to the
through the country’s largest city, Istanbul. Con- admirals’ warning that the canal would expand
struction of the canal and associated infrastruc- access for military vessels into and out of the
ture will have an estimated cost of more than Black Sea. It could thus both upset the regional
$20bn. security balance and pit Ankara against its
The impact it will have on regional security neighbours and other international players.
and trade is likely to be extensive, but just how The convention’s restrictions limit Nato
remains unclear members’ naval activities in the Black Sea, as well
Most recently, the canal was the source of as Russia’s ability to send large vessels from its
political turmoil when a group of 104 retired Black Sea fleet into the Mediterranean.
admirals published an open letter warning that If the planned canal turns out not to be sub-
it would undermine the Montreux Convention, ject to the Montreux Convention, it would allow
the treaty which since 1936 has governed passage Turkey to permit larger and more powerful naval

Week 19 13•May•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P5