Seriously for decades even centuries kanal istanbul always got shelved.
Reasons were either technology, manpower or the will to do it. Then you have economic reasons then again Turkiyr has never been a big ass economy for decades which led to plans getting constantly shelved. I think Tayyip is either gambling on a project that could work for the short term or the long term or or we dont know behind the scenes.
Im really thinking the Turkish navy could benefit from this kanal as they can easily flank the enemy because the Bogaz is a bottleneck.
It would be shame if this project gets cancelled or shelved again.
Kanal Istanbul is not a new idea. Ottomans thought of it and Ecevit was serious about doing it.