Turkey mulling to build Antarctica base

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

A Turkish engineer has designed an equipped ship for Turkey’s plans of installing a rearch base in Antarctica after years of neglect. Hürriyet photo

Turkey has speeded up its efforts for its plans to be the 30th country to install a base in Antarctica as Turkish scientists have gathered to discuss science policies for the establishment of the hub.

Turkey, one of the signatories of the Antarctic Treaty, has been ignorant to the earth’s only continent without a human population for years, but encouraged by its recent domestic and foreign scientific initiatives, it’s intending to boost research activities there.

Supported by the Turkish government, prominent scientists of Turkey and other notable figures who have been associated with Antarctica somehow, participated in a roundtable meeting on April 30 organized by the Turkish Marine Research Foundation (TÜDAV) to share ideas about why Turkey should launch a base on the continent and announced some of the plans regarding the issue.

The scientists said Turkey should pay attention to area and complete the establishment of a research base on the continent by 2015.

“The progress of our country in science and having science teams that can conduct research in any field gives hope to us for the establishment of a research center in Antarctica by 2015,” TÜDAV Chairman Bayram Öztürk said during the meeting.

The mining and oil reserve in Antarctica might be opened for operation and a research center there is a requirement of being one of the world’s top economies, Professor Kemal Başlar, said, adding that this made establishing a base in Antarctica highly significant for Turkey. The first concrete step to achieve this long-awaited idea seems to be construction of a research ship

that will travel to Antarctica. A ship engineer from Istanbul Technical University, Hamdi Sena Nomak, has designed the highly-equipped ship that will endure the tough climate at the pole.