Turkey Unitary state

History and trends

Turkey is a presidential Republic. Its official language is Turkish. Its official capital is Ankara (since 13 October 1923). Turkey is bordered by the Black Sea to the north, the Aegean Sea to the west, and by the Eastern Mediterranean (Levantine Sea) to the south.

Its constitution was adopted on 7 November 1982. It was recently amended, transforming Turkey from a parliamentary republic to a presidential republic, following a constitutional referendum held on 16 April 2017.

Following its defeat in World War I, the Ottoman Empire was carved up and the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) founded modern Turkey, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk since 1920. After first abolishing the sultanate (1922) then the caliphate (1924), Atatürk set about modernising the country and establishing secular, republican institutions.

Turkey remained neutral during World War II, then sided with the western powers (joining NATO in 1952).

The territory is divided into 81 provinces (il in Turkish). The provinces are grouped together into 7 regions (bölge), which were created for a national census. The regions serve no administrative purpose. Each province is subdivided into districts (ilçe), of which there are 957 in total.

Les provinces and districts are led respectively by government-appointed provincial governors (vali) and district governors (kaymakam). The provinces serve as parliamentary constituencies. The municipal mayors (belediye başkanı) are elected by direct universal suffrage at the same time as local or village mayors (muhtar). Some big cities have an additional tier of local government covering several municipalities – the metropolitan municipality (büyükşehir).

Each province is named after its capital city, also known as the central district. The only exceptions to this rule are Hatay (capital: Antakya), Sakarya (capital: Adapazarı) and Kocaeli (capital: İzmit).

The most populous provinces are Istanbul (more than 12.6 million), Ankara (more than 4.5 million), Izmir (more than 3.7 million), Bursa (more than 2.5 million), Adana (more than 2 million), and Konya (more than 1.9 million). There are 19 provinces with a population in excess of 1 million, 20 provinces with a population of between 500,000 and 1 million, and just 2 provinces with a population of less than 100,000.

In total, Turkey has 18,247 villages (köy), 1,397 municipalities (belediye) and 51 special provincial administrations (il özel idaresi), i.e. 19,695 first-tier local governments in total.

This total figure has fallen sharply in the last few years. As recently as 2012, there were 37,336 local governments – or almost twice as many.

Turkey’s biggest city is the pre-republican capital of Istanbul, its financial, economic and cultural centre. Around 75% of the Turkish population lives in cities.

In 2014, the status of 30 provinces was converted into that of a metropolitan municipality system and their special provincial administration was abolished. Municipalities enjoy full administrative and financial autonomy.