Opening Speech
II. National Symposium On The Aegean Islands, 2-3 July 2004, Gökçeada - Çanakkale OPENING SPEECH Ali KURUMAHMUT Prime Ministry of Navigation Counsellorship Marine Transportation General Manager The Aegean Sea lies between the Turkish and the Greek main lands, as well as between the Morea peninsular and the southwestern edges of the Anatolian coasts, with the extension of the islands of Çuha, Küçük Çuha, Girit, Kaşot, Kerpe and Rodos that constitute its outer natural boundaries. In terms of the geographical structure, the Aegean, a semi-closed sea, has geological and geo-morphological characteristics peculiar to itself: it has about 1800 islands, islets and rocks of various sorts, as well as a number of geographical formations, scattered al over the Sea. There is little wonder that all these characteristics make the Aegean Sea a special one. The Aegean dispute between Greece and Turkey has been complicated for a number of reasons: for instance, there are many islands in the Aegean that Turkey ceded to Greece through international treaties. And these islands lying in the natural extension of the Turkish mainland surround Anatolia from north to the south. But Athens makes claims of sovereignty over many islands, islets, and rocks though Ankara never ceded any of them to Greece officially. The most obvious and famous case would be the Kardak rocks crisis that erupted between Turkey and Greece at the beginning of 1996. These complications make the Aegean a sea that is of special importance among the seas of the world. It is possible to divide the Aegean Islands into five categories in terms of their geographical locations, geological and geo-morphological characteristics, the historical perspectives of the sovereign powers to which they belonged, the manner in which the sovereignty over them was determined through international treaties, as well as their importance for geo-political and strategic purposes.
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