Tuzla Island (, , crh, Тузла; from
Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities and mi ...
"tuzla" – salty, saline, literally: ''saltpan'') is a sandy
islet
An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanent ...
in the form of a
spit located in the middle of the
Strait of Kerch
The Kerch Strait, uk, Керченська протока, crh, Keriç boğazı, ady, Хы ТӀуалэ is a strait in Eastern Europe. It connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea in the west from ...
between the
Kerch Peninsula
The Kerch Peninsula is a major and prominent geographic peninsula located at the eastern end of the Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine.
This peninsula stretches eastward toward the Taman peninsula between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Most of the ...
in the west and the
Taman Peninsula
The Taman Peninsula (russian: Тама́нский полуо́стров, ''Tamanskiy poluostrov'') is a peninsula in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia, which borders the Sea of Azov to the North, the Strait of Kerch to the West and the ...
in the east. The Strait of Kerch connects the
Sea of Azov
The Sea of Azov ( Crimean Tatar: ''Azaq deñizi''; russian: Азовское море, Azovskoye more; uk, Азовське море, Azovs'ke more) is a sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, ...
and 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 ...
. Administratively, Tuzla Island is part of the
Kerch
Kerch ( uk, Керч; russian: Керчь, ; Old East Slavic: Кърчевъ; Ancient Greek: , ''Pantikápaion''; Medieval Greek: ''Bosporos''; crh, , ; tr, Kerç) is a city of regional significance on the Kerch Peninsula in the east of t ...
municipality of eastern
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
.
Infrastructure
Officially the island does not have a permanent settlement; however, it had a border station (the
Border Service of Ukraine
, Dorozhno-patrulnaya sluzhba, abbr. ДПС, DPS), Russian Traffic Patrol Service
The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS; uk, Державна Прикордонна Служба України, ''Derzhavna Prykordonna Sluzhba Ukrayin ...
), a small fishing settlement with a few private garden lots, and two vacation resorts, "Albatross" and "Two Seas". The island's electricity is supplied by two diesel power stations. The island also has a pier and a helicopter pad. A second pier located near the fishing settlement is in critical condition and is not in use. Two concrete surface roads run along the island. From May through October, a store operates at the "Two Seas" resort.
The island was used during the construction of the
Crimean Bridge
The Crimean Bridge ( rus, Крымский мост, r=Krymskiy most, p=ˈkrɨmskʲij most), also called Kerch Strait Bridge or Kerch Bridge, is a pair of parallel bridges, one for a four-lane road and one for a double-track railway, spanning t ...
, which opened in May 2018, connecting
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
to mainland
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
.
History
Tuzla Island was formed when the spit that continued the Taman peninsula suffered from massive erosion during a major storm in 1925.
[ In ancient times (2,500 years ago) the sea level was four meters below the present, which meant that at the site of modern Tuzla was quite an extensive area of land, which was part of the Taman Peninsula. Taman Peninsula itself at that time was part of the Kuban delta, and was separated from the rest of the land by river channels, which drained into the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Some historians identify Tuzla as the island of Alopeka, mentioned by ancient authors, located in the waters of Cimmerian Bosporus, and when the island periodically joined to the Asian shore of the Bosporus, the resulting braid was used as the entrance to the passage through the narrowest part of the Cimmerian Bosporus, which is located between Alopekoy and the European shore of the Bosporus. Other historians and geologists reject such a hypothesis, believing that neither the island nor the Tuzla Spit existed in ancient times.
Before the Soviet Union entered World War II in 1941, it was part of the ]Crimean Oblast
During the existence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, different governments existed within the Crimean Peninsula. From 1921 to 1936, the government in the Crimean Peninsula was known as the Crimean Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic; ...
. This in turn on February 19, 1954, became a part of the Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...
, which after the dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
in 1991 became the state of Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
.
2003 dispute
There was a territorial dispute over the ownership of the island between Ukraine and Russia in October 2003. The Russian authorities claimed the 1954 transfer of Crimea
The transfer of the Crimean Oblast in the Soviet Union in 1954 was an administrative action of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union that transferred the government of the Crimean Peninsula from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainia ...
to Ukraine had only included the continental parts of Crimea, even though the Tuzla Island had been administratively part of Crimea since 1941.
The Russian side started to build a dam from the Taman Peninsula
The Taman Peninsula (russian: Тама́нский полуо́стров, ''Tamanskiy poluostrov'') is a peninsula in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia, which borders the Sea of Azov to the North, the Strait of Kerch to the West and the ...
towards the island to revive the eroded peninsula without any preliminary consultations with the Ukrainian government authorities. After construction of the 3.8 km dam was suspended exactly at the Russian-Ukrainian border, the distance between the dam and the island had become . The dam increased the intensity of the stream in the strait and the deterioration of the island. To prevent the deterioration the government of Ukraine funded ground work to deepen the bed of the strait. Ukraine refused to recognize the strait as inner waters of both countries until 2003.
On October 21, 2003, the Border Service of Ukraine
, Dorozhno-patrulnaya sluzhba, abbr. ДПС, DPS), Russian Traffic Patrol Service
The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS; uk, Державна Прикордонна Служба України, ''Derzhavna Prykordonna Sluzhba Ukrayin ...
arrested the Russian tugboat ''Truzhenik'', which had crossed the State Border of Ukraine
State Border of Ukraine ( uk, Державний кордон України, Derzhavnyi Kordon Ukrayiny, for brevity - DerzhKordon) is an international boundary of the state territory of Ukraine. According to Article 1 of the Law of Ukraine on ...
and conducted photo and video surveillance of the island. After the incident, a respective protocol was created and the ship was handed over to the Russian border authorities. On October 23, 2003, the Ukrainian parliament
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...
issued a resolution "to eliminate a threat to the territorial integrity of Ukraine that appeared as a result of dam construction by the Russian Federation in the strait of Kerch". A provisional special parliamentary commission was created to investigate the case more thoroughly.
On October 30–31, 2003, talks started between Ukraine and Russia that led to suspension of the construction of the dam. Due to the conflict, on December 2, 2003, a border patrol station of Ukraine was installed on the island. On December 5, 2003, the Cabinet of Ukraine
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine ( uk, Кабінет Міністрів України, translit=Kabinet Ministriv Ukrainy; shortened to CabMin), commonly referred to as the Government of Ukraine ( uk, Уряд України, ''Uriad Ukrai ...
issued Order #735p in regards to urgent measures to save the island. On July 4, 2004, the Cabinet of Ukraine issued Order #429p, which foresaw the construction of shore reinforcement structures and population transfer from the flooding territories.
Following the 2003 conflict, the Supreme Council of Crimea
Verkhovna Rada of Crimea or the Supreme Council of Crimea, officially the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea ( uk, Верховна Рада Автономної Республіки Крим, Verkhovna Rada Avtonomnoï Respubl ...
ordered the establishment of a new settlement on the island. However, on September 6, 2006, the Kerch city administration refused to create such a settlement, as it conflicted with the administrative-territorial composition of the city.
The distance to the unfinished dam that stretches from the Taman peninsula
The Taman Peninsula (russian: Тама́нский полуо́стров, ''Tamanskiy poluostrov'') is a peninsula in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia, which borders the Sea of Azov to the North, the Strait of Kerch to the West and the ...
is about , with water depth along the former shallow no more than .
Disputes about right of passage were resolved by a 2003 bilateral agreement on cooperation in the use of the sea of Azov and the strait of Kerch, which made these water bodies shared internal waters of both countries, but new tensions arose after the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol.
Since 2014 Crimean crisis
Since Russian annexed Crimea in March 2014, the island has been transferred into the possession of Russia's central government by the newly established Crimean authorities and was used as a stepping stone for a new bridge linking Crimea to mainland Russia.
Gallery
Tuzla&Aq-Burun.jpg, Tuzla island (center). View from Mount Mithridat (Kerch, Crimea).
Kerch Strait, Ukraine, Russia, near natural colors satellite image, LandSat-5, 2011-08-30.jpg, Kerch Strait in 2011 depicting an extensive landform that appears to stretch from the Russian coast towards the island
Остров Тузла, рыбацкий поселок, август 2007 г.jpg, Fishing settlement at Tuzla in 2007
Остров Тузла, защитные сооружения, август 2007 г.jpg, Tuzla island reinforcement structures (2007)
Остров Тузла, внутренние озера, август 2007 г.jpg, Inner lakes at Tuzla (2007)
Часть карты Кубанской области (XIX век).jpg, Tuzla Spit on a 19th century map of the Kuban region
See also
* List of islands of Ukraine
This is a list of islands of Ukraine. It includes all islands in Ukraine with an area greater than and some of the more important minor islands. Note that During the 2014 Crimean crisis and Russian military intervention, Ukraine lost control ov ...
References
External links
«Остров Тузла»
— Севастополь «ОК», № 1-2, 2000 г.
and ttps://sputniknews.com/20090204/119983869.html Ukraine May Refer Maritime Border Row with Russia to UN Court of 4 February 2009* {{cite news, url=http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/2004/020413.shtml , title=A tiny island in the news: the dispute over Tuzla , date=2004-01-11 , work=The Ukrainian Weekly , access-date=2007-03-05 , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060520011001/http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/2004/020413.shtml , archive-date=May 20, 2006
Ostriychuk, O. ''Historical-legal aspect of Tuzla island affiliation''
Podrobnosti. 29 September 2013
Landforms of Crimea
Islands of Ukraine
Russia–Ukraine border
Territorial disputes of Ukraine
Disputed islands of the Black Sea
Kerch
*
Islands of Russia
Kerch Strait