Restructuring of Turkish cabotage at the doorstep of the European Union

The right for coastal trade, which determines the priorities for the citizens of a country in the fields of sea, road and air transportation and hence the restrictions enforced for foreigners, besides helping to develop the maritime sector of that country, contains wider economic, political and strategic factors.The Law pertaining to Turkish Coastal Trade was adopted on 29 April 1926 under hard conditions and has been in effect up-to-date without any amendments. The conditions of present Turkey are quite different from those prevailing in 1926. The need restructuring of the cabotage system has now arisen in order for the Cabotage legislation to meet today?s requirements adequately and to keep pace with the changing conditions worldwide.The purpose of this study is to discuss the restructuring required for the cabotage system of our country which is in the process of joining the European Union, in order to keep pace with the conditions changing since 1926.The definition of the right for coastal trade is primarily discussed in the first part within the above context and the cabotage implementations in Turkey and the world are studied.In the second part, the cabotage policy of the European Community is underlined and the countries with prior cabotage implementations are studied in the light of the Treaty of Rome. The decisions adopted within the context of process of constitution of the main Maritime Policy and the Common Maritime Policy of the European Union where our membership is being discussed, are analysed.The policy of coastal trade is analysed in the third part and the fundamental factors constituting the intra-transport of Europe are also discussed. In line with analysis place is given to Council Directive 92/106 and the concept of Short Sea Shipping. Furthermore, the transportation networks of European Union with other continents and economic blocks and Pan-European Transportation Corridors, Trans-European Transportation Corridors, TRACECA, and Motorways of the Sea are studied in this part.The right for monopoly of coastal trade has been established together with the establishment of the Republic for the first time. Turkish capital and Turkish Citizens has been linked closely to the seas. For this reason gaining of the right for coastal trade and the history connected therewith has been dealt with in the fourth part of the study.In the fifth part, the right for coastal trade has been investigated within the context of infrastructures of road, railway, maritime transport and the ports the situations before and after the Five Year Development Plans are compared.The final part of the study sets forth the changes required for the national transportation sector of Turkey to keep pace with the developments taking place worldwide and to meet the current needs. The importance of adoption of door-to-door service which becomes widely spread with Intermodal transportation oriented integrated service understanding supported by cargo unit carriage and which construes the fundamentals of today?s modern transportation understanding, as the main transportation philosophy.Key Words: Intermodal Transport, Door to Door Transport, Multimodal Transport, Integrated Transport, Combined Transport