THE AEGEAN SEA DISPUTE - OPTIONS AND AVENUES

The principles governing maritime boundary delimitation have been deve loped sufficiently by the International Court of Justice and other tri bunals to provide some predictability regarding the resolution of the remaining disputes. The complicated geography of the Aegean presents a challenge, but even this conflict should be resolvable. The median li ne is usually a starting point, adjusted by the proportionality of the coasts. Islands have only a limited role in maritime boundary dispute s, and in the Aegean the islands should probably be considered in clus ters rather than individually. The principles of nonencroachment and m aximum reach are particularly important in the Aegean, because they ar e designed to protect the security interests of each state and to ensu re that each country is allocated some maritime area. As applied to th e Aegean, Greece is entitled to a majority of the maritime space, but Turkey is also entitled to an equitable share in the Eastern Aegean. U sing the proportionality of the coasts as a guideline, Turkey would be entitled to a share of the Aegean's maritime space perhaps halfway be tween 20% (its percentage of the coastlines if all islands are include d) and 41% (its percentage if no islands are included). Another import ant unresolved issue is the breadth of the territorial sea, which is p resently 6 nautical miles in the Aegean. One possible compromise might be to allow a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea to be claimed from the continental coasts but not from the islands, or from the islands in t he Western Aegean but not those in the Eastern Aegean. Copyright (C) 1 996 Elsevier Science Ltd