Istanbul’s mayor was already a foe of the government’s controversial plans to build a $11.3-billion ship canal to link the Sea of Marmara and Black Sea. But the recent opening of bids for preparatory work during the COVID-19 pandemic raised his ire a notch.
Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu tweeted his disapproval of bids to relocate two bridges in the 45-kilometer-long canal’s path, roughly parallel to the Bosporus, while “fifty thousand families” are pleading for financial help. İmamoğlu is reportedly behind a recent legal attempt to overrule government approval for the project's environmental impact statement. The move is one of various efforts by critics to scrap President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s canal plan.