Im Neutral
Its a reality that a huge percentage of kemalists are criticizing a lot of topics just for the sake of criticizing it and vice versa.
Kanal Istanbul doesn't sound like a bad project per se especially with Istanbul already being so crowded. Another strait and the planned cities around it would relieve Istanbul´s population and would make Istanbul itself more planable, furthermore there will be funds trough the strait which will enrich Istanbul, now keep in mind that there will be a huge earthquake in the upcoming decades and a huge percentage of the homes in istanbul wont withstand the earthquake, I know that an argument against the construction is that the money should be spend on modernizing these homes, the reality is that these homes are not modernizable
and telling tales isnt going to change that, these homes needs to be teared down. Now the argument with montreux and Turkey loosing thrace as soon as a conflict breaks out, i havent read into much yet