Tag: Binali Yıldırım

  • Russia and Turkey open Samsun-Caucasus train ferry – exclusive interview

    Russia and Turkey open Samsun-Caucasus train ferry – exclusive interview

    TURKEY SPAIN ALVAREZ

    Binala Yildirim

    Photo: EPA

    The opening ceremony of the Samsun-Caucasus train ferry, which links the North of the country to the South of Russia, will be held on February 19 in the Turkish city of Samsun. This project will give a new dimension to the two country’s bilateral relations, Turkey’s Minister of Transport Binala Yildirim stated in an exclusive interview with the Voice of Russia.

    The Samsun-Caucasus will be the shortest transport corridor between the countries.

    Its connection to the internal areas of the country will be established in the Russian territory.

    Northern and Southern corridors in the territory of Turkey will also be connected to provide a combined and fully integrated transportation network.

    Meanwhile, Russia will be able to establish transport links with the Mediterranean region and the Middle East; and Turkey – with Turkic states (former Soviet republics) and Siberia.

    The Minister pointed out that there was road, air, railway and sea communication between Russia and Turkey.

    As for relations between the two countries as a whole, they continue to develop in a friendly vein, in the framework of mutual respect, Binala Yildirim is sure.

    He expressed hope that in 5-10 years bilateral trade would increase three times and would amount to 100 billion dollars.

    via Russia and Turkey open Samsun-Caucasus train ferry – exclusive interview: Voice of Russia.

  • Turkey’s transportation project costs to reach $60 billion in 2013

    Turkey’s transportation project costs to reach $60 billion in 2013

    Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 8 /Trend A.Taghiyeva/

    Tunnel_090608

    The total cost of transportation projects in Turkey, be it the start or completion planned for 2013, will reach $60 billion, Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said, Star newspaper reported.

    The minister said the Marmaray railway tunnel project is amongst the major projects to be completed this year. Also the largest project, construction of which will begin in 2013, is the third airport in Istanbul.

    In general this year, it is expected to put into operation 11 projects and start construction on 102.

    Yildirim noted that the tender for construction of the third airport will be held on May 3. Some 14 local and foreign companies have already expressed willingness to participate in the tender, he said.

    The third airport in Istanbul will be built on the area near Lake Terkos in the north of the city. The airport’s transportation capacity will reach 150 million passengers a year.

    Earlier, the Air Transport Department under the Turkish Ministry of Transport, Shipping and Communications told Trend that the construction of the third airport in Istanbul will cost 10 billion lira.

    The ministry also noted that the first phase of the airport will be able to serve 90 million people a year. In the future, this figure will rise to 150 million a year.

    via Turkey’s transportation project costs to reach $60 billion in 2013 – Trend.Az.

  • Canal Istanbul to be real in six years, minister claims

    Canal Istanbul to be real in six years, minister claims

    Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım praised the Cancal Istanbul project yesterday at the First Marmara and Black Sea Conference in Istanbul, saying it would be finalized in five to six years, and that the project was aimed at protecting the Bosphorus.

    n 19652 4“Of the 50,000 ships that pass through the Bosphorus, 9,500 carry dangerous materials. The total weight of these materials is 150 million tons,” said Yıldırım, adding that if there was an accident the consequences could be disastrous. He explained that it was not possible to expand the borders of the Bosphorus and that protecting the waterway was a top priority.

    “Canal Istanbul is a project that is very important to us. Once it is completed, we will have a waterway on which we will be able to completely control the traffic on the Bosphorus,” said Yıldırım. He also added that the Canal Istanbul Project would benefit oil tankers that currently lose money due to the congestion as they wait to enter the Bosphorus.

    “We plan to complete this project in five to six years and we are currently working on the plans,” said Yıldırım.

    According to Yıldırım, once every 40 hours one of the tankers crossing the Bosphorus faces a mechanical problem, and it is only due to strict controls that there have been no major incidents over the past ten years.

    via LOCAL – Canal Istanbul to be real in six years, minister claims.

  • Norwegian PM to cook for Turkish guests in İstanbul

    Norwegian PM to cook for Turkish guests in İstanbul

    Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg during a scheduled visit to İstanbul will cook Norwegian food for his Turkish and Norwegian guests in a lunch organized in honor of him at the Çırağan Palace on Saturday.

    JensStoltenberg

    The lunch has been organized on the initiative of Janis Bjorn Kanavin, the Norwegian ambassador to Turkey. Stoltenberg will cook seafood from Norway with the accompaniment of Norwegian chef Jostein Medhus, in the historical Çırağan Palace’s kitchen. Many Turkish and Norwegian industrialists are expected to be in attendance at the lunch.

    Following the lunch, the Norwegian prime minister will head to Boğaziçi Shipyard in the province of Yalova to attend an opening ceremony for a Norwegian-Turkish-made ship that will be used as a petroleum platform, to which Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım will also attend.

    via Norwegian PM to cook for Turkish guests in İstanbul.

  • Turkey Pushed for Its Own Astronaut on Space Shuttle

    Turkey Pushed for Its Own Astronaut on Space Shuttle

    By Clara Moskowitz

    SPACE.com Senior Writer

    In exchange for buying Boeing jets, Turkey wanted a Turkish astronaut to fly on a NASA space shuttle, according to a classified U.S. State Department message recently released by the organization WikiLeaks.

    last atlantis liftoff 1 100514 01The leaked cable, published by the New York Times, was written in January 2010 by James Jeffrey while he was U.S. ambassador to Turkey. Jeffrey (now ambassador to Iraq) was apparently urging Turkish Airlines, which is partly owned by the Turkish government, to purchase planes from Boeing rather than its European competitor Airbus.

    Turkish Minister of Transportation Binali Yildirim told Jeffrey that while price was the main consideration, Turkey could be swayed by perks, including help getting the budding Turkish space program off the ground – a request that had previously been made by Turkey’s president, Abdullah Gul, to President Obama.

    “Yildirim hinted obliquely that Turkey’s desire to send an astronaut into space — expressed in a letter from President Gul to President Obama — is also tied into its consideration of commercial deals, and that NASA assistance to help stand up Turkey’s nascent space program would be viewed positively,” Jeffrey wrote.

    The Turkish minister also requested help from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in strengthening Turkey’s aviation infrastructure, and said that heightened cooperation between the FAA and Turkey could also help sweeten the deal.

    “Yildirim’s conflation of interactions [between the United States and Turkey] and what is ostensibly a commercial sale between private firms suggests an unwelcome, but unsurprising, degree of political influence in this transaction,” Jeffrey wrote.

    He added, however, “While there should not be a link between this deal and FAA/NASA assistance in developing Turkey’s aviation and aerospace agencies, such assistance in and of itself could be mutually beneficial and merits further study.”

    The leaked memo not only revealed the eagerness of Turkey to boost its space and aviation programs, but, taken with other cables released by WikiLeaks, showed the willingness of American diplomats to help broker deals for U.S. businesses.

    Jeffrey promised to investigate whether NASA could help the Turkish space program. He “noted that scheduling a Turkish astronaut on an upcoming mission would be extremely difficult, but that other technical assistance from NASA in establishing Turkey’s space program might be a possibility.”

    NASA has carried foreign astronauts on space shuttle flights in exchange for money or other contributions to space projects. For example, Japanese astronauts have flown on U.S. space shuttles (as well as on Russian Soyuz spacecraft), and Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, was a member of the ill-fated crew of the space shuttle Columbia, which disintegrated in 2003 during re-entry.

    Political considerations weigh into the decision to place a foreign astronaut aboard a U.S. space shuttle, but in Turkey’s case that may now be moot: Only two or three shuttle flights remain before the fleet is retired this year.

    Turkey is not the only country asking for perks in exchange for purchasing Boeing jets. Other leaked documents reveal similar tit-for-tat requests being negotiated behind the scenes by the State Department. For example, the king of Saudi Arabia wanted his personal jet outfitted with technology from Air Force One, and the prime minister of Bangladesh asked the State Department to re-establish landing rights at New York’s JFK airport, the New York Times reported.

    Ultimately, there is hope for further collaboration in space between Turkey and the United States, Jeffrey wrote.

    “We probably cannot put a Turkish astronaut in orbit, but there are programs we could undertake to strengthen Turkey’s capacity in this area that would meet our own goals for improved aviation safety in the region.”

    via SPACE.com — Turkey Pushed for Its Own Astronaut on Space Shuttle.

  • Turkish minister says Istanbul needs new airport

    Turkish minister says Istanbul needs new airport

    Turkey’s transportation minister said on Friday that a new airport in the commercial hub of Istanbul was inevitable.

    Friday, 17 December 2010 15:20

    binaliTurkey’s transportation minister said on Friday that a new airport in the commercial hub of Istanbul was inevitable.

    Binali Yildirim said that there will be around 150 million passenger traffic in Istanbul by 2023, and only two airports, including Ataturk and Sabiha Gokcen international airports, could not meet this traffic.

    “Therefore, a new airport is inevitable in Istanbul,” Yildirim said during a meeting in Istanbul on increasing importance of Sabiha Gokcen International Airport in air transportation.

    Sabiha Gokcen Airport suffered financial loss between 2001 and 2004. The total passenger traffic at the airport was 130,217 in 2002 but it reached to 10.2 million by November 2010.

    Istanbul’s second airport Sabiha Gokcen hosted 6.27 million passengers in the first seven months of 2010, up 94 percent from the same period a year earlier.

    The airport almost caught last year’s passenger number of 6.6 million in the first seven months of 2010. 4.2 million of total passengers used domestic flights. The number of domestic passengers rose 92 percent.

    International passengers also increased 98 percent to 1.99 million. In July only, Sabiha Gokcen hosted 1.27 million passengers.

    Sabiha Gokcen International Airport, situated on the Asian side of Istanbul, opened in 2001. In 2007, ISG, a consortium of Malaysia Airports Holdings, India’s GMR Infrastructure and Turkey’s Limak clinched the rights to manage Istanbul’s second airport with a 1.9 billion-euro bid.

    AA