ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday inaugurated the third bridge over the Bosphorus Strait between Europe and Asia in Istanbul, a spectacular project at the heart of his drive to create a lasting historical legacy.
The work — one of the longest suspension bridges in the world — will allow Erdogan to show that his dream of creating a glitzy “new Turkey” with ultra-modern infrastructure is on track despite the July 15 failed coup and a string of militant attacks.
Erdogan cut the ribbon to open the bridge and was then driven across in a presidential bus flanked by a security convoy of dozens of cars and motorcycle outriders.
“To attain the level of a civilised nation is not possible with words but with actions,” said Erdogan, who has dominated Turkey from 2003-2014 as premier and from 2014 as president.
“We are connecting continents with the bridge,” he added. “People die but their work remain immortal.”
The openings of bridges across the Bosphorus — the first in 1973 and the second in 1988 — have been landmark dates in the modern history of Istanbul.
Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2016
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