Welcome to Turkey — a country in two continents, even if one side is more lopsided than the other!
Subdivisions
Turkey is divided into 81 provinces, or il:
- 01 Adana
- 02 Adıyaman
- 03 Afyonkarahisar
- 04 Ağrı
- 05 Amasya
- 06 Ankara
- 07 Antalya
- 08 Artvin
- 09 Aydın
- 10 Balıkesir
- 11 Bilecik
- 12 Bingöl
- 13 Bitlis
- 14 Bolu
- 15 Burdur
- 16 Bursa
- 17 Çanakkale
- 18 Çankırı
- 19 Çorum
- 20 Denizli
- 21 Diyarbakır
- 22 Edirne
- 23 Elâzığ
- 24 Erzincan
- 25 Erzurum
- 26 Eskişehir
- 27 Gaziantep
- 28 Giresun
- 29 Gümüşhane
- 30 Hakkâri
- 31 Hatay
- 32 Isparta
- 33 Mersin
- 34 Istanbul
- 35 İzmir
- 36 Kars
- 37 Kastamonu
- 38 Kayseri
- 39 Kırklareli
- 40 Kırşehir
- 41 Kocaeli
- 42 Konya
- 43 Kütahya
- 44 Malatya
- 45 Manisa
- 46 Kahramanmaraş
- 47 Mardin
- 48 Muğla
- 49 Muş
- 50 Nevşehir
- 51 Niğde
- 52 Ordu
- 53 Rize
- 54 Sakarya
- 55 Samsun
- 56 Siirt
- 57 Sinop
- 58 Sivas
- 59 Tekirdağ
- 60 Tokat
- 61 Trabzon
- 62 Tunceli
- 63 Şanlıurfa
- 64 Uşak
- 65 Van
- 66 Yozgat
- 67 Zonguldak
- 68 Aksaray
- 69 Bayburt
- 70 Karaman
- 71 Kırıkkale
- 72 Batman
- 73 Şırnak
- 74 Bartın
- 75 Ardahan
- 76 Iğdır
- 77 Yalova
- 78 Karabük
- 79 Kilis
- 80 Osmaniye
- 81 Düzce
License Plates
Although Turkey is not a member of the European Union, its license plates use a similar style, with a blue band on the left-hand side of the plate bearing the country code TR: TR12 ABC 34. The first two digits indicate the issuing provincial code, found in the Subdivisions list above.
Phone Codes
Phone codes in Turkey are organizd by province, but are also fairly well organized by region within the country:
Western 2xx
- 212 Istanbul (Europe)
- 216 Istanbul (Asia)
- 222 Eskişehir
- 224 Bursa
- 226 Yalova
- 228 Bilecik
- 232 İzmir
- 236 Manisa
- 242 Antalya
- 246 Isparta
- 248 Burdur
- 252 Muğla
- 256 Aydın
- 258 Denizli
- 262 Kocaeli
- 264 Sakarya
- 266 Balıkesir
- 272 Afyon
- 274 Kütahya
- 276 Uşak
- 282 Tekirdağ
- 284 Edirne
- 286 Çanakkale
- 288 Kırklareli
Central 3xx
- 312 Ankara
- 318 Kırıkkale
- 322 Adana
- 324 Mersin
- 326 Hatay
- 328 Osmaniye
- 332 Konya
- 338 Karaman
- 342 Gaziantep
- 344 Kahramanmaraş
- 346 Sivas
- 348 Kilis
- 352 Kayseri
- 354 Yozgat
- 356 Tokat
- 358 Amasya
- 362 Samsun
- 364 Çorum
- 366 Kastamonu
- 368 Sinop
- 370 Karabük
- 372 Zonguldak
- 374 Bolu
- 376 Çankırı
- 378 Bartın
- 380 Düzce
- 382 Aksaray
- 384 Nevşehir
- 386 Kırşehir
- 388 Niğde
Eastern 4xx
- 412 Diyarbakır
- 414 Şanlıurfa
- 416 Adıyaman
- 422 Malatya
- 424 Elazığ
- 426 Bingöl
- 428 Tunceli
- 432 Van
- 434 Bitlis
- 436 Muş
- 438 Hakkâri
- 442 Erzurum
- 446 Erzincan
- 452 Ordu
- 454 Giresun
- 456 Gümüşhane
- 458 Bayburt
- 462 Trabzon
- 464 Rize
- 466 Artvin
- 472 Ağrı
- 474 Kars
- 476 Iğdır
- 478 Ardahan
- 482 Mardin
- 484 Siirt
- 486 Şırnak
- 488 Batman
Roads, Markings, and Signage
Highways & Road Numbering Schemes
The Turkish highway network has two main tiers: motorways (otoyollari) and national roads (devlet yollari).
Motorways
These are controlled-access highways, prefixed with the letter O and signposted with black text on a yellow hexagon: O.21. They are grouped into several regions, and for the most part are numbered with respect to the region.
-
0-series: Istanbul
O.1 – O.7
-
20-series: Ankara
O.20 – O.20
-
30-series: İzmir
O.30 – O.33
-
50-series: Adana
O.51 – O.54
Note that these are still intercity routes; as such, they typically propagate outwards from the core city, and so can be found in surrounding cities as well.
National Roads
These routes are more commonly found across Turkey, and are prefixed with the letter D and signposted with white text on a blue background: D.120. The numbering of these routes is fairly uniform, following these rules:
-
East-West
- Up to D.500
- D.x00 Major routes
- D.xx0 Intermediate routes
- even: All other routes
-
North-South
- D.500 and up
- D.x50 Major routes
- D.xx5 Intermediate routes
- odd: All other routes
Architecture
Language
Turkish is the official language of Turkey, and is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages. This makes it a very distinct language, and one that can be recognized very easily.
Script
The Turkish alphabet uses 23 of the 26 letters of the standard Latin alphabet (Qq, Ww, and Xx excepted), plus six modified characters. Of note is the use of dotted (İi) and (Iı) dotless Is, which is mostly unique to Turkish.
Aa Bb Cc Çç Dd Ee Ff Gg Ğğ Hh
Iı İi Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Öö Pp
Rr Ss Şş Tt Uu Üü Vv Yy Zz
Sample
Bütün insanlar hür, haysiyet ve haklar bakımından eşit doğarlar. Akıl ve vicdana sahiptirler ve birbirlerine karşı kardeşlik zihniyeti ile hareket etmelidirler.