Gulf of Piran
The Piran Bay (Slovenian Piranski zaliv, Croatian Piranski zaljev, recently also Savudrijska vala, Italian Baia di Pirano), named after the town of Piran, is a bay in the northern part of Adriatic Sea and part of Gulf of Trieste. It measures around 20 km².
Since 1991, the border between Slovenia and Croatia in Piran Bay has been disputed. The two countries disagree about the border as it was never defined in the former Yugoslavia. Slovenia claims that Savudrija was connected with Piran throughout centuries, that Slovenian police always controlled the whole bay between 1954 (dissolution of the Free Territory of Trieste) and 1991 (breakup of Yugoslavia) so the whole bay should belong to Slovenia. Croatia, on the other hand, claims that the border line should be equidistant from both shores. In 2001 Janez Drnovšek and Ivica Račan, then prime ministers of both countries, signed an agreement about the border between the states. According to that agreement, Croatia would get approx. one third of the bay and grant Slovenia a corridor to the international waters. However, Croatia never ratified this agreemnet while Slovenia did so soon after it was signed.
After the independence of both nations, Piran Bay has been a place of conflict for fishermen from both countries and the police.
 | This Croatian geography article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This Slovenian geography article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |