The Multibillion Dollar Canal Carving a Rift Through Erdogan's Turkey
Cargo ships wait for their turn to enter the Bosporus Strait outside Istanbul in June 2018. Sergey Ponomarev—The New York Times/Redux
BY JOSEPH HINCKS / SAZLIBOSNA, TURKEY
FEBRUARY 14, 2020
Land prices are booming in Sazlibosna. Over a tulip-shaped glass of tea in one of the village’s cafes, local governor Oktay Teke says that a few years ago, a square meter of land here in the farming community northwest of Istanbul sold for as little as 10 Turkish lira, about half the price of a pack of cigarettes. Recently, speculators have flocked to the area, snapping up swathes of farmland and pushing prices to up to 700 lira ($126) per square meter.
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