Aegean sea continental shelf dispute between Turkey and Greece

Turkey and Greece are neighboring states which they have a series of disputes named as Aegean Issue. Aegean Issue includes many disputes which are related to each other. These are: delimitation of Aegean continental shelf, extension of territorial waters, disarmament of Eastern Aegean Islands, and FIR line. Delimitation of Aegean continental shelf and extension of territorial waters form the most important ones of the issue since they are directly related with sovergnity rights of both states. Bordered by Turkey and Greece, and as a semienclosed sea, Aegean sea forms the most complex situation in the geography of the Mediterranean since it contains a lot of islands which mostly belong to Greece and many of these are too close to Turkish main land. Continental shelf problem contains both a legal and a political characteristic. Because there is no other state which placed on Aegean shore, the dispute is a bi-lateral problem. For this reason other states are not concerned as a party of this issue. According to the judgements of the International Court of justice, negotiations between the states have priorty for solving the problem of delimitation of continental shelf. These negotiations must be meaningful. Point of view of the court is that, the judical settlement of the disputes subsitutes the direct and friendly settlement of the disputes. So the states have the obligation to perform meaningful negotiations for solving the disputes. İt is not possible to say that Turkey and Greece are performing such kind of meanigful negotiations. Besides, it cannot even said that the partieshave efforts to start a period of time which may provide meaningful negotiations. Turkey and Greece are confronted danger of war so many times because they cannot solve the continental shelf problem which is the one of disputes between both states. To make this danger clear and to trust the future, the govemers of these two countries have to start meaningful negotiations without loosing time.