Administrative Divisions
From International Business Wiki
Administrative Divisions- Regions, Provinces and Districts
Turkey is divided into 81 provinces for administrative purposes. The provinces are then divided into 7 regions. This second division is done for census purposes. Each province is then divided into a district. Turkey has a total of 923 districts. Most of the provinces in Turkey share their name with the provincial capitals which are also called the central districts. Exceptions include Hatay, Kocaeli, and Sakarya [1].
Istanbul is the largest province in Turkey with a population of over 10 million. Ankara, which is also the capital of Turkey, is the second biggest with about 4.5 million people. The third most populated is Izmir with roughly 3.5 million people, followed by Konya and Bursa which both contain roughly 2.5 million people [2]. Turkey extends more than 1,600 kilometers from east to west and is around 800 kilometers from north to south. The total land area is approximately 780,580 kilometers “The European portion of Turkey, known as Thrace, encompasses 3 percent of the total area but is home to more than 10 percent of the total population. Thrace is separated from the Asian portion of Turkey by the Bosporus Strait, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles Strait. The Asian part of the country is known by a variety of names; Asia Minor, Asiatic Turkey, the Anatolian Plateau, and Anatolia. The term Anatolia is most frequently used in specific reference to the large, semiarid central plateau, which is rimmed by hills and mountains that in many places limit access to the fertile, densely settled coastal regions. Astride the straits separating the two continents, Istanbul is the country's primary industrial, commercial, and intellectual center. However, the Anatolian city of Ankara is the political center of the country and has emerged as an important industrial and cultural center in its own right” [3].
[edit] References
1. “Turkey.” October 28. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey. 2. “Turkey Administrative Divisions” October 30. World Gazetteer. http://world-gazetteer.com/r/r_tr.htm. 3. “Geography”. October 26. http://countrystudies.us/turkey/18.htm.
