Kaspische

Kaspische is the German adjective used to denote things related to the Caspian Sea (Kaspisches Meer) and its surrounding region. In geographic, cultural, economic or political contexts, the term appears in phrases such as Kaspische Region or Kaspische Länder.

The name Caspian derives from the Caspians, an ancient people in the region, or from early Greek and Persian usage; in German, Kaspisch is the base form, and the noun is Kaspisches Meer.

Geographically, the Caspian Sea is the world's largest enclosed inland body of water, located between Europe and Asia. It borders Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Azerbaijan, covers about 371,000 square kilometers, and reaches depths up to around one kilometer. It is brackish, with salinity lower than seawater and variable due to freshwater inflows and evaporation.

Ecologically, the Caspian hosts sturgeon species valued for caviar; biodiversity is affected by pollution, fishing pressure and invasive species. Economically, the region is rich in oil and natural gas resources, and the sea serves as a major transportation route with ports, pipelines and fishing activities.

Politically, the status of the Caspian has been negotiated among the five littoral states—Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, and Azerbaijan. In 2018 they signed agreements on legal status and cooperation that treat the sea as a defined shared body and regulate seabed resources within national sectors, while preserving sovereign rights over resources within those sectors.

Thus, Kaspische is a linguistic label used to refer to this geographic and geopolitical space.