PKK's terror attacks aim at “lifeblood” projects in Turkey: minister

Turkey's Minister of Transport Maritime Affairs and Communations, Feridun Bilgin, said that more than 50 construction sites have been closed in the primarily Kurdish southeast and east of Turkey due to security threats by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

“A total of 57 constuction sites along motorways have remained closed because of the terror attacks," Bilgin said, responding to questions from the reporters on Wednesday.

Referring to terror attacks that hit cell towers belonging to GSM operators in Turkey, the minister said: “PKK terrorists have also aimed at base stations in the region. Two hundred and twenty-seven base stations have been destroyed so far."

Bilgin also reminded journalists that Hakkari's Selahattin Eyyubi airport has been a target of PKK attacks several times, even while under construction. “The airport first became operational on May 26, but no flights have been available to or from the airport since August 5 because of terror attacks still ongoing in the region," he explained.

A ceremony was held to lay the cornerstone for Selahattin Eyyubi airport near Hakkari province's Yüksekova district in 2010. The airport was completed in a period of five years despite security threats posed by the PKK.

The flight operations began at the airport on May 26 with a joint inauguration attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. The AK Party's government has originally planned the airport would offer flights to residents living in Hakkari and its districts as well as international travellers from Iraq and Iran traveling to Turkey for their summer vacations.

National carrier Turkish Airlines' planes carried a total of 150,000 passengers, 150 of whom were from Iraq and Iran, in the first five days after the airport became operational. THY planes conducted Ankara-connected flights in three days while arraging regular flights between Istanbul and Hakkari every day during these five days.

Bilgin also spoke of the AK Party's giant construction projects still in progress. He said the construction of İzmit Bay Bridge will be completed in March 2017. “It will be the fourth-longest suspension bridge in the World by the length of its central span," he noted.

The suspension bridge is located on the Gulf of İzmit, along the eastern end of the Marmara Sea. The travel distance between Istanbul, in the northwest, and İzmir, in the west, will shorten about 140 km bypassing the Gulf of İzmit when the bridge begins land operations. The projected highway of 420 km length with the bridge will reduce the jouney period between the two major cities from six and a half hours to three and a half hours.

The minister also added that the Eurosia Tunnel – a second underwater tunnel still under construction in Istanbul crossing the Bosphorous Strait, will open by December 2016.

The 5.4 km double-deck tunnel will connect İstanbul's Kazlıçeşme on the European side to Göztepe, on the city's Asian side. It will cross the Bosphorus beneath the seabed to alleviate Istanbul's traffic congestion. The tunnel is just located at about 1 km South of the undersea railway tunnel Marmaray, opened on 29 October 2013. With this new route, travel time between the two continents will be shortened from 100 minutes to just 15.