Chamber of City Planners said, “No to Kanal Istanbul, to the waste of public resources and crazy projects of the economic model based on construction!” He called for an objection to the project.
CLICK: How can you appeal to Kanal Istanbul online?
The statement released by the Chamber of City Planners today is as follows:
“21. As we enter the third decade of the century, development is no longer measured and evaluated on the basis of physical size, that is, quantity, but quality/quality. Concepts such as quality of life, ecological sustainability, public benefit, social benefit, participation processes, democratic decision-making mechanisms, and social justice are frequently discussed, and new and future-oriented economic and urban models are produced based on these concepts.
However, since the day it came to power, the current government, which has chosen the construction sector as the dominant sector of the economic development model, which concerns large parts of the society and which is vitally important, while the productive sectors such as agriculture and livestock are losing power, the current government has been trying to transfer the large share in the economy to construction capital at every opportunity. policies continue.
The relationship of the central government with the capital has constantly changed form and scale in the process. The desire to nurture the construction industry and to transfer a share of the resulting rent to certain circles, while enlarging the scale of AKP`s moves towards the construction sector, has also distanced it from reason and science at the same rate.
At this point, a development model other than construction has become unthinkable; the country’s economy has become almost dependent on concrete. As a result of this state of dependency, which has moved away from rational reason and science, our country has been condemned to incessant big projects just to get a share from the land rent. Many of the major projects that have been implemented today are either idle or continue to be operated at a loss. As a result, a handful of construction investors continue to gain weight with the shares transferred from the limited budgets of large groups with low incomes.
In the previous periods, the government, which had a certain capital group outsource mega-crazy projects, usually with the Build-Operate-Transfer model, argued that it did this without the citizens’ pocket money, but with commitments of up to 49 years all over the country, even future generations will be devoted to construction companies that do not produce any social added value. borrowed, the future of Turkey has been mortgaged. Unfortunately, it is possible to list many examples of rent projects built in this direction. The most prominent ones are;
* The Formula 1 Track, which was built within the Ömerli Dam Basin, one of the most important drinking water basins of Istanbul, with a cost of approximately 290 million dollars (1.8 billion TL), was leased for 1% of the construction cost. This irrational project (track), which cost the country’s future, education and health investments, was built despite all the objections of the experts, and the country’s hump has become the place for speed enthusiasts. In the project, which was insisted on while the country’s primary problem awaiting many investments, planning principles and principles were not included in the process, the reports submitted by professional chambers and scientists were not taken into account, and the taxes of the people have become largely inactive today, and due to the choice of location, it creates ecological destruction. transferred to this project. .
* Zafer Airport, which was built for approximately 50 million Euros to serve the provinces of Kütahya, Afyonkarahisar and Uşak, was put into operation with a 95.8% margin of error in the number of guaranteed passengers determined in the tender, due to site selections made without complying with the decision-making processes, scientific requirements and technical criteria in the planning. As the cost of such an irrational and forced project, 20 million 855 thousand Euro Guarantee Passenger fee was paid to the relevant companies in the first 6 years. While the total population of the three cities in question is 1,652,920, it is estimated that approximately 205 million Euros will be transferred from the pocket of the public to the relevant company during the 29-year operation period for the airport, which was guaranteed 1,137,364 passengers for 2017.
* With a daily guarantee of 40,000 vehicles on Osmangazi Bridge, 43,800,000 vehicle crossings were guaranteed in 3 years, and 22,306,468 vehicles equivalent to approximately half of this number were passed. Regarding the bridge, which is declared to have been costed 11.5 billion TL without the citizens’ pocket money, 35 Dollars + VAT is given to the relevant company from the treasury for each vehicle that does not pass. In this case, in only 3 years, approximately 4.5 billion TL was transferred from the taxes of all citizens to the relevant companies. In addition, the total fee paid by the citizens crossing the bridge in 3 years is approximately 2.1 Billion TL. In the first 3 years of the project, which destroyed thousands of hectares of fertile agricultural land along the bridge routes, destroyed the wetlands and seriously damaged the ecosystem integrity, the relevant shareholders earned 6.6 billion TL and this amount corresponds to half of the total cost. In addition to the irreversible damages to ecological values, money will continue to be transferred to domestic and foreign companies from the pockets of all citizens every day for the remaining 8 years for each vehicle that does not cross the bridge.
* ANKAPARK, which was stated to have cost 750 million dollars (approximately 4.5 billion TL) by the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality President at the time, claiming that it would attract 10 million tourists a year, was transferred to 765 million TL for 29 years. The project, which was made with the prediction that a theme park would host 10 million tourists in the current environment, where the capital Ankara hosts an average of 500 thousand tourists and Istanbul 12 million tourists, was built in Atatürk Forest Farm and is a submerged project, despite the cancellation decisions and all the objections of the relevant professional circles. The entire cost has been borne on the shoulders of the people.
* Istanbul Airport, which was built in an ecologically important region of Istanbul with the claim to be the largest airport in Europe and started to be used as of March, was used by 39,252,058 passengers between April and November 2019; Atatürk Airport, which was closed due to the claim that its capacity was not enough and was cited as the reason for the construction of the third airport, was used by 47,621,521 passengers in the same period of 2018. In other words, it hosted approximately 20 percent more passengers than the Third Airport built in its place. The project, which was tendered for 22 billion 150 million Euros for 25 years, continues to be financed with the taxes of the citizens, as the annual passenger guarantees are covered by the treasury, despite the low-interest loan support from public banks using the common resources of the country.
While the Build-Operate-Transfer model, which is supported by the argument that mega projects are built without any money coming out of the pockets of the citizens, applied in all areas from city hospitals to ports, from highway projects to tube crossings, treasury-guaranteed earnings have been provided to investors close to the government for decades; Our future has been mortgaged, the foundations of an impoverishment process that will encompass generations have been laid, crazy projects that do not create added value have brought along the economic crisis that has been going on for years and is getting deeper.
With such mega-projects, which were built far from objective realities, needs and country priorities, without running the participation processes and ignoring the objections voiced by the professional chambers, while the ecological balance was destroyed, great costs were placed on the nature as well as the society.
It is a necessity for the government to maintain this economic model, which has no other goal than to transfer income to capital groups through the construction sector, even in the current economic conditions where the productive sectors have lost power and unemployment is at the highest rates in history, because the current economic model of the AKP is very largely construction and urban. built on profit.
In this sense, Kanal Istanbul is the latest and most destructive move in the crisis of planlessness, irrationality, waste and the construction-based economy model.
Kanal Istanbul project, which has been brought to the country’s agenda at regular intervals;
– Salinization of important water resources such as Sazlıdere, Terkos and Küçükçekmece Lakes, deterioration of the salinity rates of sea and freshwater basins and the hydrology of the water regime, and permanent damage to terrestrial and marine ecosystems in these areas,
– Millions of square meters of forest area, pasture area and fertile agricultural land, together with the destruction of two ancient cities and natural and archaeological sites,
– Risks increase in a possible earthquake due to the placement of additional population on active fault lines on the project route,
– The elimination of the two-way current system in the Bosphorus, thereby causing the pollution in the Black Sea to flow into the Marmara and the irreparable deterioration of the ecosystem in both the Black Sea and the Marmara,
– The local people, who make their living from agriculture and animal husbandry, lose both their living spaces and their livelihoods,
– At the end of a decision-making process in which science, technique and reason are completely disabled, the balance of population, employment and urban service provision in the city will completely change with the construction of “smart” cities where hundreds of thousands of people will live,
– Mortgage of our future with the construction of the canal, operating costs and repayment processes, such as the projects listed above and whose entire burden is covered by the taxes of the people,
will cause.
Based on an EIA report full of deficiencies and contradictions*, which is not included in the upper scale plan decisions, ignoring the possible ecological and regional effects of the project, without taking into account the objections of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, which is the local administration by the central government, and the relevant professional chambers, the participation processes are not operated, The Kanal Istanbul project, which is defended with an imposing method with the logic of “we will do it too”, is far from scientific and does not rely on any technical reason, like the projects, some of which are summarized above. Project processes are incompatible with the hierarchy of legal norms. This “crazy” project, which is obviously not a development project, is in violation of Article 56 of the Constitution, which guarantees that everyone has the right to live in a healthy and balanced environment.
Kanal Istanbul is the last point of the economic paradigm of the last 20 years, which is based on urban rent, destroys natural values, mortgages the future of society, and prioritizes the benefits of capital circles. It is the last stage of irrationality, planlessness, anti-science and technology, enmity against nature, wasting public resources.
In the current situation, the central power has become dependent on this economic model based on generating construction rent and distributing this rent to certain segments, but we are not condemned to this imposition and irrationality.
As the Chamber of City Planners of TMMOB, which adopts the motto of using science and technology for the benefit of the people, this consumer and futureless economic paradigm and its executives should not further harm our country, public resources and natural values; We invite our members and all sensitive public to oppose, raise their voices and object to the Kanal Istanbul Project so that it does not darken our future further.
TMMOB Chamber of City Planners
* The detailed technical report on the Kanal Istanbul Project and the EIA Report, which is about to be completed, will be presented to the public by TMMOB Istanbul IKK.
* You can find the petition announcement created here.