...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...on Saturday launched the start of construction on a controversial canal aimed at easing congestion on the Bosphorus but which critics say courts environmental disaster.
The "Canal Istanbul" is a gigantic waterway running parallel to the Bosphorus Strait connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and the Mediterranean.
"Today we are opening a new page in the history of
The 45 kilometre (28 mile) long waterway will connect the Black Sea to global maritime networks, a strategically important issue at the heart of European geopolitics and conflicts for centuries.
Erdogan's detractors accuse him of clinging to a project that will lead
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund...
to ecological disaster and debt as massive as it is unnecessary.
Erdogan devoted almost all of his speech to defending the project.
Citing the risks posed by the rising number of ships passing through the Bosphorus, Erdogan said the project was mostly aimed at "ensuring the safety of (Turkey's) citizens in Istanbul" and allowing the country to take "a more important place" in international trade.
Dismissing critics, he said: "All stages of the project have been designed in accordance with science."
The project has also sparked criticism abroad, mainly in Russia, a country that fears seeing easier access to the Black Sea for NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
forces.
Under the Montreux Convention governing navigation through the Bosphorus Strait -- the only natural maritime access to the Black Sea -- countries that don't have a coastline to the waters must give advanced notification of plans for their ships to pass through the region. And then, the vessels can only stay for a limited time.
"This project in no way violates Montreux," said former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, who spoke before Erdogan at the ceremony.