Eskişehir Bar Association President Mustafa Elagöz explained his views about the Channel Istanbul Project and said the project would harm both national security and the environment.
The press release by the Eskişehir Bar Association about the Kanal Istanbul Project is as follows; ” The Ministry of Environment and Urbanization declared that the “Environmental Impact Assessment” (EIA) report prepared for the Kanal Istanbul Project was found to be sufficient and announced that it was opened to the public opinion and stated that the time to give an opinion was 10 days.
As Eskişehir Bar Association, we know our views about the Kanal İstanbul Project and enlighten the public in line with our obligation to defend the rule of law, human rights, protect them and to bring these concepts into effect.
Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits, along with the Lausanne Treaty, the founding treaty of the Republic of Turkey. It is unacceptable to put the sovereign rights we have gained under the leadership of the Montreux Straits Convention under the leadership of Supreme Leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, with the claim of economic interests; Our national independence and national security protected by this contract can never be opened to debate.
Montreux Convention Straits ceased to disarmament status, established Turkey's full sovereignty over the straits. The security of Turkey, be notified of the passage of warships to advance Turkey, as limited by terms of number and tonnage of the last warships through the Straits, passage of the day done, the prohibition of the throat to fly fighter planes over the only submarine of the Black Sea littoral states in order to go to their bases on the Black Sea, pass if they watch at day and water the face of Turkey passes through the throat in case of war has entered the regime's provisions, such as the release of Turkey's discretion, for the sake of economic interests is shown as a basis for the project is not regulations that could be sacrificed.
According to the agreements that regulate international channels and the Wimbledon decision of the Permanent Court of Justice, a channel that combines international maritime routes, as it is subject to the rule of the coastal state; It also has international status. Based on these regulations in Turkey, the channel is not as close to the transition to adhere to the interests, it is possible to say not discriminate between passing ships. In other words, the right to free passage will cover not only merchant ships but also warships. This situation is not appreciated; It arises from the necessity of international law in similar situations.
If the Kanal Istanbul project is implemented, both the riparian states to the Black Sea and the states that do not have a coast in the Black Sea will have the opportunity to pass through the Straits without being subject to the restrictions that Montreux has brought to warships; our national security will be under constant threat. It is not possible to foresee the harms of the Black Sea being full of warships and turning it into a competitive area between the USA and Russia in terms of the security and survivability of our country.
Moreover, although it is suggested by the project developers that the project will provide economic benefit by bringing in transit revenue through the channels; Since it will not be possible to prevent the ships that will be crossing preferring the straits which are both shorter in kilometers and cheaper in economic terms, this claim is also a groundless claim that has been put forward only to provide public support and is intended to mislead the public, to defend the rule of law and the public interest within the scope of our duty. We feel the need.
Apart from our sovereignty rights and national security, we should also talk about the effects of the project on ecological balance. It is obvious that underground and aboveground resources will be lost with the project. If the project is implemented, the salty water that will enter the Terkos Lake will harm the drinking water of over sixteen million Istanbul people without any compensation. It will also cause the extinction of living species living in the Black Sea and Marmara.
Planning of the project in an area of seismic risk and triggering passive fault lines, activating the hazard, Turkey can not be a risk can afford! Human life is much more valuable than economic interests. If this project is implemented, the fact that the fault lines become active will also be a violation of the state's obligation to protect human life.
In the EIA Report, it is mentioned that the natural traffic in the Bosphorus will decrease gradually and it is stated that the Bosphorus traffic will be relieved. However, according to the data of the Ministry of Transport, in 2017, in contrast to 42.978 ships crossing in 2019, 30.352 ships were crossing. Therefore, this claim is not true either.
Is there really a need for a channel that is unnatural and will threaten our human life, national security, and the future of our country, while Istanbul, the apple of the world's eye, has the Bosphorus? THERE IS NO.
As Eskişehir Bar Association, we report our negative opinion to Kanal Istanbul Project to the public and the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, with the legal and science-based justifications we have tried to summarize above; We invite all of our people to apply to the Ministry of Environment and Urbanism in this short time that is given to us against this project threatening our future.
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