Istanbul bridge ‘will exacerbate traffic woes’

Opponents of third causeway say the project is an attempt to push development, refuting claims that it would ease road congestion amid concerns for surrounding forests and offence over its name, Foreign Correspondent Paul Osterlund reports

ISTANBUL // A third bridge over Istanbul’s Bosphorus strait will open today amid much controversy.

Activists argue that the crossing will have a disastrous environmental impact on the city and nearby forests. The bridge, which will be opened at a ceremony attended by president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and prime minister Binali Yildirim, has been touted by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) as a success despite the criticism.

While the government insisted that the crossing would alleviate heavy traffic, opponents said the project was merely an attempt to stimulate development in the already disappearing forests north of the city that would be likely to prove lucrative for contractors friendly with the government.

To back up this claim, they pointed to the development that occurred after the opening of the second bridge over the Bosphorus in 1988.

Opponents of the bridge also said that far from alleviating the city’s traffic problem, the crossing would, in fact, exacerbate it.

“A traffic problem that could not be solved by two bridges will not be solved by a third. Bridges do not decrease traffic. They create their own traffic because bridges transport cars, not passengers,” said Seda Elhan, a member of the Northern Forests Defence (Kos) activist group. The environmental debate over the third bridge and other major urban projects took a back seat in the past few months after a string of bombings by militant groups and the attempted military coup.

But a new debate – this time over the bridge’s name – led to the project being pushed back into parliamentary discussions in recent weeks.

In 2013, the government announced that it was naming the bridge after 16th-century Ottoman sultan Yavuz Selim, also known as Selim the Grim.

The news infuriated Turkey’s Alevi community, thousands of whom were killed on Selim’s orders.

Adhering to a Sufi-influenced form of Shiite Islam, Alevis make up about 15 per cent of Turkey’s population.

Then, earlier this month, the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy, Ozgur Ozel, suggested that the bridge instead be named after Sultan Pir Abdal, a beloved Alevi poet from the 15th century.

Shortly after, CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu made another proposition – that the project should be named after the founder of the Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

However, the countless billboards prominently displayed throughout the city advertising today’s opening indicate that the name is here to stay.

Yesterday, activists from Kos assembled in central Istanbul to demonstrate their opposition to the bridge’s construction. In typical Istanbul fashion, the throng of riot police outnumbered the about 50 demonstrators and journalists.

“I came to defend my city,” 45-year-old Kos member, said Kiymet Aram.

Ms Aram lives in Gokturk, an area located in the heart of the northern forests on the western side of the Bosphorus, close to the third bridge’s connecting roadway and near the construction site of another hotly contested project – Istanbul’s third airport.

“Due to the hundreds of construction vehicles working 24/7, we are witnessing the wild animals in the area die out,” Ms Aram said.

In 1995, during his tenure as Istanbul’s mayor, Mr Erdogan said that a third bridge would mean “murder” for the city. He has since become its biggest advocate.

During yesterday’s protests, activists held posters featuring phrases similar to Mr Erdogan’s 1995 remarks, including “The third bridge is murder”, and brandished photos of the bridge and its connecting roads, which have sliced through the northern forests. Transport minister Ahmet Arslan told the Haberturk daily newspaper on Wednesday that the forestland alongside the connecting roads of the third bridge would not be zoned for development. But Kos members said this was not true. According to another Kos activist, Onur Akgul, 34, large sections of land in the village of Agacli, which lies immediately adjacent to the bridge’s connecting roadway on the western side of the Bosphorus and near the third airport construction site, have already been expropriated by the government and slated for development. “We ask once again, what are your goals after the third bridge? A new Istanbul with new fairgrounds, convention centres, healthcare facilities and residential projects?”said Kos member Ms Elhan.

“Don’t forget about the old Istanbul, the apple of the world’s eye. You are killing the old Istanbul.”