(Redirected from Aegean islands)
'Aegean Sea Islands': map showing island groups.
The 'Aegean Islands' (
Greek: Νησιά Αιγαίου, ''Nisiá Aigaíou'';
Turkish: ''Ege Adaları'') are a group of
islands in the
Aegean Sea, with mainland
Greece to the west and north and
Turkey to the east; the island of
Crete delimits the sea to the south. The
ancient name of the Aegean Sea, ''
Archipelago'', was later applied to the islands it contains and is now used, generally, to refer to any island group.
The Greek Aegean Islands are subdivided into numerous groups (from north to south):
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Northeastern Aegean Islands
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Sporades
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Euboea
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Argo-Saronic Islands
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Cyclades
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Dodecanese (Southern Sporades)
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Crete
Almost all of the Aegean Islands belong to Greece, being split among nine administrative
peripheries.
Turkish possessions include
Imbros (Gökçeada),
Tenedos (Bozcaada), and eight more islets off Turkey's western coast.
Territoriality regarding the sea and some of the islands, as well as the airspace above them, is a source of
ongoing dispute between Greece and Turkey and has changed over time. The 'Italian Aegean Islands' (
Italian: ''Isole Italiane dell-’Egeo'') is sometimes used to refer to the Aegean islands conquered by
Italy during the
Italo-Turkish War in 1912 and annexed (through the
Treaty of Lausanne) from 1923 until 1947: the Dodecanese, including
Rhodes and
Castelrosso (Kastelorizo).
See also
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List of Aegean Islands
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List of islands of Turkey
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List of islands of Greece
References
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Aegean Sea, The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05.