The Rezovo (also Rezovska, Rezvaya and Rezve; bg, Резовска река ; tr, Mutludere ) is a river in the extreme southeast of

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

and northernmost part of

European Turkey East Thrace or Eastern Thrace ( tr, Doğu Trakya or simply ''Trakya''; el, Ανατολική Θράκη, ''Anatoliki Thraki''; bg, Източна Тракия, ''Iztochna Trakiya''), also known as Turkish Thrace or European Turkey, is the pa ...

. The river is situated in Bulgaria's

Strandzha Nature Park Strandzha Nature Park ( bg, Природен парк Странджа ''Priroden park Strandzha'', also transliterated as Stranja Nature Park) is the List of protected areas of Bulgaria, largest protected area in Bulgaria spanning a territory o ...

River basin

The Rezovo is 112 km long and its source is in the Turkish part of the

Strandzha Strandzha ( bg, Странджа, also transliterated as ''Strandja'', ; tr, Istranca , or ) is a mountain massif in southeastern Bulgaria and the European part of Turkey. It is in the southeastern part of the Balkans between the plains of T ...

mountains east of

Kofçaz Kofçaz is a town and district of Kırklareli Province in the Marmara region of Turkey. The mayor is Ziya Karataş ( AKP). The nearby village of Ahlatlı, 30 km away, is the northernmost settlement in the country. Facts Kofçaz is a district of ...

in Turkey under the Turkish name of ''Paspalderesi''. It generally flows east from Turkey to Bulgaria, and after Paspala village of

Kırklareli Province Kırklareli Province ( tr, ) is a province in northwestern Turkey on the west coast of the Black Sea. The province neighbours Bulgaria to the north along a long border. It borders the province of Edirne to the west and the province of Tekirda ...

in Turkey becomes a border river between the Turkey and Bulgaria until its mouth in the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

Rezovo Rezovo ( bg, Резово, ) is a village and seaside resort in southeastern Bulgaria, part of Tsarevo Municipality, Burgas Province, in the coastal Strandzha geographical region. Geography The village is in Strandzha Nature Park. Lying at th ...

. This location constitutes the southernmost point of the

Bulgarian Black Sea Coast The Bulgarian Black Sea Coast (), also known as the Bulgarian Riviera, covers the entire eastern bound of Bulgaria stretching from the Romanian Black Sea resorts in the north to European Turkey in the south, along 378 km of coast ...

and the northernmost point of the Turkish one, as well as the southeasternmost point of Bulgaria and northeasternmost point of

Turkish Thrace East Thrace or Eastern Thrace ( tr, Doğu Trakya or simply ''Trakya''; el, Ανατολική Θράκη, ''Anatoliki Thraki''; bg, Източна Тракия, ''Iztochna Trakiya''), also known as Turkish Thrace or European Turkey, is the pa ...

. The Rezovo's catchment spreads over 739 km², of which 555 km² are in Turkey, and 184 km² in Bulgaria.Statistical Yearbook 2017

National Statistical Institute (Bulgaria) The National Statistical Institute or NSI ( bg, Национален статистически институт or НСИ) is the Bulgarian state agency responsible for the collection and dissemination of statistical data on the population, ec ...

, p. 17 Its largest tributary is the Velika.

Bulgaria-Turkey riverine border

The border at the Rezovo's mouth was the subject of a minor

territorial dispute A territorial dispute or boundary dispute is a disagreement over the possession or control of land between two or more political entities. Context and definitions Territorial disputes are often related to the possession of natural resources su ...

between Bulgaria and Turkey, which was settled in the 1990s. As a result of an agreement between the two countries of 6 May 1992 (ratified by Bulgaria in 1998), Bulgaria received a small land area of several square kilometres in the Rezovo Bay in return for water area in the

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

References and notes

Rivers of Bulgaria Rivers of Turkey Landforms of Burgas Province Strandzha International rivers of Europe Territorial disputes of Turkey Territorial disputes of Bulgaria Bulgaria–Turkey border Landforms of Kırklareli Province Tributaries of the Black Sea Border rivers {{Turkey-river-stub