Geography of Turkey
Turkey is a transcontinental Eurasian country. 97 percent of Turkey is located in Asia and 3 percent of it is located in Europe. These parts are separated by the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus, and the Dardanelles.
Turkey’s land area is about 800,000 square kilometers (about 300,000 square miles). According to the land area, Turkey is the 37th-largest country in the world. Three seas are surrounding this country: The Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean to the south, and the Aegean Sea to the west. Turkey also contains the Sea of Marmara in the northwest.
Turkey is bordered by the Black Sea to its north, Greece, and Bulgaria to its northwest, Armenia, the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan and Iran to its east, Iraq, and Syria to its southeast, the Mediterranean Sea to its south, the Aegean Sea to its west, and Georgia to its northeast.
Istanbul is the largest city in the country while Ankara is the capital.
Turkey is divided into seven geographical regions: Central Anatolia, Eastern Anatolia, Southeastern Anatolia, Mediterranean, Marmara, Aegean, and the Black Sea.
Population of Turkey
In 2018, Turkey’s population was 80.8 million people, which the most populated city was Istanbul having 15 million people.
Language and Race of Turkey
The national language of Turkey is Turkish.
Approximately 70-80 percent of the country’s citizens identify as Turkish, and Kurds are the largest minority 15-20 percent of the population.
Religion in Turkey
Turkey is a secular country with no official religion. However, all public schools hold mandatory religious classes that mostly focus on the Sunni sect of Islam.
About 80.5 percent of Turkish people are Sunni Muslims and about 16.5 percent are Shia Muslims. Other religions have lower percentages.
Economy of Turkey
Turkey has the world’s 13th largest GDP. In 2019, Turkey’s exports were $180.4 billion and its imports were $210.4 billion.
The major export goods of Turkey are Ships, Home Appliances, Electronics, Textiles, Iron, and Steel.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Turkey was $12.4 billion in 2019.
In 2005, because of high inflation, a new currency was launched the name Turkish new lira. One Turkish new lira (TRY) equals 1,000,000 Turkish old lira (TRL). In 2009, the Turkish new lira was renamed back to the Turkish lira with the introduction of new banknotes and coins, but the code of the Turkish new lira (TRY) remains in use for the current Turkish lira in the foreign exchange market.
Tourism in Turkey is an important part of the economy. Turkey is one of the world’s top ten destination countries. Germany and Russia send the most tourists to Turkey.
Politics of Turkey
Turkey is a secular, formerly parliamentary republic that adopted a presidential system with a referendum in 2017. The new system came into effect with the presidential election in 2018. Turkey’s current administration, headed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Administrative Divisions of Turkey
Turkey is divided into 81 provinces (il/vilayet). Each province is divided into districts (ilçe). In total there are 923 districts.
The government representatives are province governors (vali), town governors (kaymakam), and mayors (belediye başkanı). Turkish municipalities have local legislative bodies (belediye meclisi) for decision-making on municipal issues.
The name of Turkey’s provinces is listed below:
- Adana
- Adıyaman
- Afyonkarahisar
- Ağrı
- Aksaray
- Amasya
- Ankara
- Antalya
- Ardahan
- Artvin
- Aydın
- Balıkesir
- Bartın
- Batman
- Bayburt
- Bilecik
- Bingöl
- Bitlis
- Bolu
- Burdur
- Bursa
- Çanakkale
- Çankırı
- Çorum
- Denizli
- Diyarbakır
- Düzce
- Edirne
- Elâzığ
- Erzincan
- Erzurum
- Eskişehir
- Gaziantep
- Giresun
- Gümüşhane
- Hakkâri
- Hatay
- Iğdır
- Isparta
- İstanbul
- İzmir
- Kahramanmaraş
- Karabük
- Karaman
- Kars
- Kastamonu
- Kayseri
- Kilis
- Kırıkkale
- Kırklareli
- Kırşehir
- Kocaeli
- Konya
- Kütahya
- Malatya
- Manisa
- Mardin
- Mersin
- Muğla
- Muş
- Nevşehir
- Niğde
- Ordu
- Osmaniye
- Rize
- Sakarya
- Samsun
- Şanlıurfa
- Siirt
- Sinop
- Şırnak
- Sivas
- Tekirdağ
- Tokat
- Trabzon
- Tunceli
- Uşak
- Van
- Yalova
- Yozgat
- Zonguldak
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AffLabz
on said
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