Monday, October 03, 2005

The Times Online guest contributors Opinion

"Energetic, honest and transformed — so why does Turkey need us anyway?
Norman Stone
THREE OF THE greatest engineering projects of modern times are under way in Turkey. By the Maiden’s Tower, on the Bosphorus, a famous old landmark, two elaborate structures have appeared. They are the surface end of an enormous underwater enterprise, to link the European and Asian sides of the city by tunnel. It will widen the traffic bottleneck that so besets Istanbul, and do much to make it once again one of the great European cities. Already, huge areas of the old European part of the city are being restored, brought back to where they were in 1900, when the city was the heart of a Mediterranean empire."

More:The Times Online guest contributors Opinion