Could Istanbul's Protesters Halt Turkey's Controversial Canal Project?

The spiralling unrest that began around Istanbul's Gezi Park this past week has been dramatic enough, but a controversial project that's only beginning in the city's suburbs makes the park's redevelopment look modest indeed. Kanal Istanbul is a plan to cut a new 26-mile waterway through the Thracian Peninsula, on which the city’s European section is located, connecting the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara section of the Mediterranean.

The canal has been mooted as a project for a long time – for centuries in fact – but until recently the idea had tended to be dismissed as just one of many schemes proposed by the Turkish government that are grandiose but improbable. This May, however, Turkey's deputy prime minister, Ali Babacan, announced that work is due to begin on the new canal this month. The sort of massive infrastructure project Europe hasn't seen since the 19th century, the canal project is now more likely than ever to create a major stand-off between the Turkish government and its discontents.