A special council meeting was attended by Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Murat Kurum at the Istanbul and Marmara, Aegean, Mediterranean, Black Sea Regions (İMEAK) DTO.
At the opening of the meeting held in the Chamber Council Hall under the presidency of Council Vice President Emin Eminoğlu, İMEAK Chamber of Shipping Board Chairman Tamer Kıran spoke.
“The maritime sector is a sector that can be taken as an example in terms of its development speed”
Tamer Kıran stated that maritime transport is the backbone of world trade and the global economy, saying, “88 percent of the world’s cargo and approximately 86 percent of our country’s foreign trade is carried out by sea. We have seen the problems that could arise if maritime transport and trade are disrupted through the container crisis that emerged after the recent pandemic, the grounding of the container ship named Evergreen in the Suez Canal, the crisis due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, and finally, the changes in ship routes due to the security problem in the Red Sea.”
The DTO President, who used the expressions “All these events have led to economic losses while demonstrating the global importance of keeping sea routes open and maintaining their use,” noted the following: “The maritime sector is a sector that can be taken as an example in terms of its development speed. As of the beginning of 2025, the Turkish-owned ship fleet has risen to 10th place in the world with a carrying capacity of 52 million DWT. We were in 17th place when we took office. Besides our merchant marine fleet, our shipbuilding and maintenance industry has a very important place in the sector. Our country, which has become a country achieving great success in shipbuilding, repair, maintenance, and repair, currently has 85 shipyards. Our shipyards have become prominent in the global market with high-technology shipbuilding. In addition, the warships of different tonnages and classes built in our military and civilian shipyards are proof of the point we have reached in the defense industry. There are 162 countries in the world known to have military naval forces.
“Our country is one of the 10 countries with the capacity to design, build, and maintain a warship.”
“The studies for the rental of the piers and their provision for use by members are in the final stage.”
Tamer Kıran, stating that after the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, the ministry the maritime sector is in most contact with is the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, said that within the scope of the studies conducted with the ministry, they signed the ‘Protocol for the Preparation of a Feasibility Report for the Determination of Maritime Coastal Areas Boat Manufacturing and Haul-Out Areas, Mooring and Berthing Places, and the Determination and Installation of Buoy-Mooring Buoy Points and Numbers’ among the Chamber of Maritime Commerce, the General Directorate of Protection of Natural Assets, Piri Reis University, and GİSBİR on August 1st.
Kıran emphasized that with the signed protocol, a feasibility report will be prepared to determine the areas along the Marmara, Aegean, and Mediterranean coasts where boat manufacturing and haul-out areas, mooring and berthing places, and buoy-mooring buoy systems can be established, and that the studies have already begun and are ongoing.
Tamer Kıran stated that the studies regarding the request for the Chamber to rent 20 piers, which are actively used by the DTO’s members in Istanbul, and provide them for use by members, in order to prevent rental problems encountered, have reached the final stage.
The DTO President said they have learned that a study is being carried out, taking into account the Chamber’s requests, to resolve the problems experienced within the scope of the Maritime Waste Application Circular (DAU).
“Whoever possesses the seas, possesses the future.”
After Tamer Kıran, Murat Kurum, the Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, took the floor.
“As a nation, we are members of a civilization that has reached these days by feeling the salt of the Mediterranean, the wave of the Black Sea, the blue of the Aegean, and the breath of the Marmara,” said Kurum, adding, “As we all know, today, the seas determine not only the borders of our geography but also the course of our future.”
Murat Kurum continued his words as follows:
“Our seas are at the center of the economy, trade, energy, humanitarian aid, and even diplomacy. The hope carried by the humanitarian aid ships reaching Gaza travels via the seas, and the Grain Corridor, which is a solution to the world’s food crisis, is also opened via the seas. In short, 90 percent of global trade is carried out by sea transport. Today, while trading at Mersin Port, seeing off our ships at Izmir Port, searching for natural gas in the Black Sea, and while our fishermen in Sinop cast their nets into the sea, we are actually growing Turkey’s economic, strategic, and environmental power. And this picture shows us that; whoever possesses the seas, possesses the future. That is why our seas are a strategic treasure and the greatest guarantee of our future. As a country surrounded by seas on three sides, we act with this awareness; we see protecting our seas, developing them, and passing them on to the future in their cleanest form as one of our fundamental responsibilities with a mobilization understanding.”
“Not everyone who wants to, will be able to moor their boat anywhere.”
Minister Kurum, emphasizing that the seas are under threat, said the following: “Last month, we attended the United Nations General Assembly together with our esteemed President and expressed it clearly. We said, ‘Blue is our hope, blue is our future.’ Unfortunately, today, all the seas of the world are under serious threat. We, aware of this reality, are working without stopping for even a single moment.
While cleaning our seas on one hand, we are also providing all kinds of support for the construction of advanced biological treatment plants to protect our seas again and to prevent mucilage in the Marmara Sea, and we are following the memorandum of understanding we made with the relevant municipalities here instant by instant. Now, with the Zero Waste Blue Movement, we are taking one of our most important steps that will ensure the clean future of our Blue homeland for the next 50-100 years. Within this scope, we have started our Mooring Buoy Project, which we have implemented, at great speed in the Fethiye-Göcek Special Environmental Protection Area, which we have designated as the pilot region. We signed an important protocol in cooperation with our Ministry, our Chamber of Shipping, the Turkish Shipbuilders’ Association and Piri Reis University. With this protocol, we are taking very important steps to protect the seas and lakes of our country, which is surrounded by seas on three sides, and in this sense, it will increase both production, employment and tourism, and we will protect our seas like the apple of our eye. With this protocol, we have prepared a comprehensive feasibility study for the determination of boat manufacturing and haul-out areas, mooring and berthing places, and mooring buoy points. We will regulate marine traffic and ensure that boats and yachts are accommodated in our bays in a fair, planned, and controlled manner. Not everyone will be able to moor their boat anywhere they want. By establishing a boat mooring system, we are putting an end to practices that harm the environment. Thus, we will both prevent the discharge of waste into the sea and, by protecting the seagrass meadows that allow our seas to breathe and the entire marine ecosystem, we will make environmentally compatible marine tourism permanent. Our bays will also become more livable. Our citizens will be happy, and our environment will be protected. In a way, we will ensure the sustainability of nature in regions where yacht tourism is intense. Furthermore, with this project, we will provide our sector with new business areas, employment opportunities, and business opportunities.
7SEA
