Trans-Turkey Transport Alternatives to the Suez Canal, Now & 450 Years Ago

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 27 May 2021)

NOW...

There are two new transport routes that will make Turkey an important

international center for Asia-Europe transport.  Both routes have become

possible because of transportation cooperation between Turkey and 

Russia.  

The Russia-based P&O Maritime Logistics company, which runs the 

Volga-Don Canal that connects the Sea of Azov-Black Sea with the

Caspian Sea, and İzmit-based DP World Yarımca have reached an 

agreement, whereby containers loaded onto ships at İzmit will be 

shipped directly to Central Asia via the Volga-Don canal.  In 2020,

the total trade between Turkey and the Central Asia republics amounted

to $31 billion.  Transit via Russia's river-canal reduces both the cost

of transport and the bureaucracy involved. 

The second route has come to fruition because of the "EverGiven" 

incident that closed the Suez Canal.  The Danish shipping giant

Maersk  began looking for an alternative and its calculations revealed

that Far East countries can bring their goods to Primorye on Russia's

Sea of Japan coast, after which the goods will be transported to 

Novosibirsk via the Trans-Siberian Railroad and from there through

the southern Caucasus to the Tbilisi-Kars railway that connects with

Turkey.  

Maersk initiated the route with a trial run on 24 May, comprised of

247 containers that passed through customs at Primorye and headed

for Turkey.  The goods will be sorted out in Istanbul for distribution

to the European countries of destination in a process that will take

a total of between 25-30 days.  By comparison, goods from Taiwan

or China sent to Europe via the Suez Canal take 40-45 days to reach

Istanbul and the transport cost for the Siberia route is 20% less.

THEN...

//NOTE: For the full paper see Academia, under this title://

16^th Century Ottoman Caspian and Black Sea 

Canal Projects

In the second half of the 16^th century, Ottoman power was at its apex.  

Prime Minister Sokullu Mehmet Paşa, who served Sultans Süleyman, 

Selim II and Murad III, was involved in all the major developments 

of that era and even had time to conjure up initiatives for canals from 

the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea, a canal at Suez, and an alternative 

to the Bosphorus via a Sakarya River-Lake Sapanca-Gulf of Izmit 

route.  

None of these canal projects came to fruition at the time, although 

later the Suez Canal and the Volga-Don canals were built by others.  

In any case, two Turkish journalists in the early part of the twentieth

century researched the Ottoman archives and other historical source 

from the earlier Ottoman periods and wrote summary articles about 

the Black-Caspian Seas canal project and the Sakarya-Sapanca-

Izmit canal project, championed and nearly achieved by one of 

Sokullu’s successors, Koca Sinan Paşa.  

1.Sokullu Mehmed Paşa’s Initiative for a Black Sea – Caspian Sea 

Canal

The driving force behind this 1568-69 initiative was Sokullu’s desire 

to re-take Ejderhan (Astrahan) from the Russians, who had seized it 

in 1556.  In addition, he hoped to put the Ottomans in a better 

position vis-à-vis the constant wars with the Safavids of Iran and 

enable Central Asian Moslems to make the pilgrimage to Mecca.  

However, Russian resistance and poor weather conditions in the 

summer of 1569 combined to halt the canal dig.  The Ottoman-

Crimean Tatar expeditionary force was routed and the Ottoman 

fleet destroyed in the Sea of Azov.

2.Koca Sinan Paşa Leads Sakarya-Sapanca-Izmit Canal Effort

In the time of unmotorized ships, the Bosphorus presented a 

daunting navigational challenge, especially at its entrance to and 

from the Black Sea.   As a result, the Ottomans began to  assess the 

possibility of a canal from the Sakarya River to Lake Sapanca 

and from there to the Gulf of Izmit.

Prime Minister Koca Sinan Paşa was enthusiastic about the project, 

which would also make the transport of wood for shipbuilding and 

for the populace easier.   A major effort was launched in the Spring 

of 1591 to bring the canal to fruition but competing wood suppliers 

and other palace minions convinced  Sultan Murad III that the 

success of the canal would make Koca Sinan Paşa’s star outshine 

the Sultan’s.  Consequently, after 80 days of intensive activity, the 

project came to a halt.