Erdogan's crazy canal marks his downfall

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a megalomaniac with no skills and abilities to turn his thoughts into reality, and it has been proven time and again. 

Today, Erdogan is due to attend a ceremony for his “crazy” Istanbul canal. The official price tag is $15bn, but the real figure was estimated at a recent developers conference in France to be $65bn. 

Given Turkey’s economic struggles, the canal is now seen by many as superfluous to the city’s needs, an astronomically costly environmental disaster, with potential geopolitical fallout to boot.

“If the project is completed, the first thing that comes to mind is the right of future generations to live in a healthy environment. No amount of money can fix that if it is lost,” Istanbul’s opposition party mayor, Ekrem İmamoglu said.

According to Dr Akgün İlhan, a water management expert at the Istanbul Policy Centre, the canal would create enormous and irreversible adverse impacts on the ecosystem and society in not only Istanbul, but the entire Marmara region. The canal will also make Istanbul more vulnerable to earthquakes and extreme weather events such as droughts and floods.

However, the louder the opposing voices grow, however, the more determined Erdogan appears to be to proceed. When he is not able to prove his words with action, he turns to using propaganda and information of convenience to project to his countrymen, how good he is and why they should believe in him.

Public support for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party hit an all-time low last month amid disenchantment with the Turkish government handling of the economy. Turkish opposition figures are gaining ground among voters ahead of the country’s critical 2023 presidential elections and are likely to pose a major threat to Erdogan and his ruling party.