By Walid Shoebat (Shoebat Exclusive)
If you think that rebuilding Babel was a crazy project, you need to contemplate on the “Kanal İstanbul”, a Turkish project, which is proposed to be built by the Republic of Turkey on the European side of Turkey, connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. And it is literally dubbed “The Crazy Project”.
To understand the history behind this project, it stems from a historic dream that no man could do until Erdogan of Turkey showed up. How he succeeded where others failed gets to show the extent of Erdogan’s ability to convince. The first proposal to build the Istanbul Canal was made by Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (reigned 1520–1568). Then came Sultan Mehmed IV, pressure for the recommencement of the canal was applied but to no avail. Then came Sultan Mustafa III (reigned 1757–1774) tried twice in 1760 but the project could not go ahead due to economic problems. Then during the reign of Sultan Mahmud II, an Imperial Ottoman Committee was established to examine the project once again. A report was prepared in 1813 but no concrete steps were taken.
Then came the savior of Turkey, Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the Kanal İstanbul project on April 27, 2011 during a rally held in connection with the upcoming 2011 general elections, calling it as his Wild Project (Turkish: Çılgın Proje).
There is one other factor in the near future which will make Turkey the number one player in the Black Sea power struggle: the Istanbul Canal project. Through this new canal, Turkey will be able to pass aircraft carrier groups to the Black Sea without any international supervision even in times of peace. Military power is surely very important but the Istanbul Canal puts more power into the hands of Turkey through the energy axis and raises its position as an energy hub.
Turkey has two relatively small domestic crude oil pipelines, which pale in comparison to the 2004-2008 average of 2.6-2.8 million barrels of oil transported through the crowded Bosphorus each and every day, but the Istanbul Canal could alleviate the pressure and reduce shipping delays, sometimes by up to three weeks. Even if the capacity of the Samsun-Ceyhan line were increased to 1.5 million barrels per day, there would still be over one million barrels of oil going through the Bosphorus, so clearly pipelines are not the answer.
Of course, the canal would affect the energy policies of other actors in the region. Having an alternative, nationally controlled sea route would increase Turkey’s regional leverage, both politically and economically. The canal would also potentially have an undermining effect on the current pipeline projects of Russia, which would enable the West to have a genuine “sanctions card” to play against Russia.
And when it comes to the Middle East, such project and Turkey will become a major player. Al-Arabiya just published an article in which it stated:
“Here we have to turn to the country which has the longest Black Sea coasts and controls the sea traffic in the Black Sea: Turkey. Turkey constitutes the basic axis of the South East Gas Corridor (SGC) along with Azerbaijan and Israel is getting involved in the international energy business through Turkey. Iran is also insisting on joining this energy axis.
Turkey is the only country, which can diplomatically invite all these diverse players to the same table. The diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Israel has quickly subsided and is on the road to being completely resolved. Azerbaijan already calls Turkey a brother nation.
Turkey has been strikingly successful in bringing Iran to the diplomatic table concerning serious international matters such as the Syria crisis, the Iranian-Western nuclear deal and relationships in the Gulf region. Turkey is the only country where both Iranian and Israeli citizens can travel without a visa and enjoy their stay without being concerned about security risks.”
According to Al-Arabiya and most experts, Turkey holds the card to be the number one negotiator in Middle East peace plans.
Is Turkey holding the cards to solving simply a potential energy crisis? Not at all, it is far more than that. Turkey controls the only passageway to the Black Sea and the Turkish Straits are the only waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas and to the oceans through the Suez Canal and the Straits of Gibraltar … The delicate balances in the Black Sea right now heavily depend on Turkey being the calm, sane and wise rational actor in the escalating tensions. One needs to feel the moral dynamics, understand economic forces, recognize back-door diplomatic corridors and study the history of a region perfectly and be ready to accept the true driving force behind a community, no matter how controversial it may be to their personal beliefs.”
Ceylan Ozbudak
Al-Arabiya adds:
“Other distinctions are dependent on circumstances: times of peace, when Turkey is not a belligerent during a time of war, when Turkey is a belligerent in a time of war, and situations when Turkey considers itself threatened with the imminent danger of war.
In addition to this, in times of peace, the total number and the maximum aggregate tonnage of all foreign naval forces that may pass through the Turkish Straits are limited to 9 and 15,000 tons respectively. This means aircraft carriers cannot under any circumstance pass through the Turkish Straits.
The maximum aggregate tonnage that non-Black Sea countries may have in this body of water is 45,000 tons. The maximum aggregate tonnage of the vessels of war that one non-Black Sea country may have in the sea is 30,000 tons and vessels of war belonging to non-Black Sea states cannot stay more than 21 days in the Black Sea. Advance notification must be given to Turkey of all passages through the Turkish Straits. The notification time is eight days for vessels of war belonging to Black Sea states and 15 days for those of other countries.
According to the aforementioned clauses in the Montreux Treaty, even small American or European war ships cannot linger in the Black Sea more than 21 days and they cannot just show up at the door without prior permit. Even though the U.S. asked Turkey to violate the treaty to pressure Russia regarding Ukraine, Turkey turned down this offer.
The reason why we are seeing an American warship in the Black Sea right now is because the ship was declared to need repairs after its 21 day permit had expired. Turkey sought to keep the Black Sea demilitarized since 1936.
Following the South Ossetia War in August 2008, the Turkish Straits again became an issue of concern for the US when Turkey denied passage to US warships seeing to transit the Straits, which prevented the tensions from escalating even further between the US and Russia.”
“Through this new canal, Turkey will be able to pass aircraft carrier groups to the Black Sea without any international supervision even in times of peace. Military power is surely very important but the Istanbul Canal puts more power into the hands of Turkey through the energy axis and raises its position as an energy hub.”
But as Al-Arabiya concluded:
“Turkey is the only country, which can diplomatically invite all these diverse players to the same table.”
Turkey is the key player in the Middle East conflicts.
All this brings us to learn more about Turkey’s emerging Sultan-Antichrist. He is also called “Pharaoh King of Egypt” (Ezekiel 29:3), the “Assyrian” and “King of Babylon”. But one thing we know for sure, that is Gog is “chief prince of Meshech and Tubal”. These, historians agree are in Turkey. In Ezekiel 28 there can be no doubt that this is Satan, “great monster who lies in the midst of the rivers.” (Ezekiel 29:2)
It is possible that “my river is mine” (v. 3) is concerning blocking Israel from the Strait of Tiran, but with this massive project, it could also be the Istanbul Canal. Only time will tell. For so many years people where rushing into judgment that the end is at hand. From Blood Moons to Harbingers, many prophecy buffs are making major mistakes. This mistake stems from a western mentality: the lack of patience. They forget to read the Book of Job but focus mostly on the Book of Revelation.
Being Middle Easterner and an x-Muslim, we are trained to work in patience. We have been tracking the progress for two decades. Today we see the scope of Bible Prophecy. But there is still much more to happen.
Today we have Babylon rebuilt.
The massive project in Turkey is set to be completed by 2023. This will be nine years from now. Can we wait until then to see? We have no choice, regardless of western fast food style patience, they too are forced to wait!