This is an encyclopedia entry of 4000 words. The Imia/Kardak dispute began in 1995 when a Turkish cargo ship ran aground on an uninhabited islet in the Aegean Sea. When the Turkish captain refused help from Greeks on the grounds that the islet was in Turkish territory, a serious dispute developed between Turkey and Greece. Yet in the same year, trade relations across the Aegean significantly improved because of the EU-initiated Barcelona Process, demonstrating the effects of the dual-border zone that the Aegean has become.Peer reviewe
