1Up Travel Weather > Weather Forecast for Turkey & its Cities

Location: southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia (that portion of Turkey west of the Bosporus is geographically part of Europe), bordering the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and Georgia, and bordering the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, between Greece and Syria

Geographic coordinates: 39 00 N, 35 00 E

Map references: Middle East

Area:
total: 780,580 sq km
land: 770,760 sq km
water: 9,820 sq km

Area - comparative: slightly larger than Texas

Land boundaries:
total: 2,627 km
border countries: Armenia 268 km, Azerbaijan 9 km, Bulgaria 240 km, Georgia 252 km, Greece 206 km, Iran 499 km, Iraq 331 km, Syria 822 km

Coastline: 7,200 km

Maritime claims:
exclusive economic zone: in Black Sea only: to the maritime boundary agreed upon with the former USSR
territorial sea: 6 nm in the Aegean Sea; 12 nm in Black Sea and in Mediterranean Sea

Climate: temperate; hot, dry summers with mild, wet winters; harsher in interior

Terrain: mostly mountains; narrow coastal plain; high central plateau (Anatolia)

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
highest point: Mount Ararat 5,166 m

Natural resources: antimony, coal, chromium, mercury, copper, borate, sulfur, iron ore, arable land, hydropower

Land use:
arable land: 32%
permanent crops: 4%
permanent pastures: 16%
forests and woodland: 26%
other: 22% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land: 36,740 sq km (1993 est.)

Natural hazards: very severe earthquakes, especially in northern Turkey, along an arc extending from the Sea of Marmara to Lake Van

Environment - current issues: water pollution from dumping of chemicals and detergents; air pollution, particularly in urban areas; deforestation; concern for oil spills from increasing Bosporus ship traffic

Environment - international agreements:
party to: Air Pollution, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Environmental Modification

Geography - note: strategic location controlling the Turkish Straits (Bosporus, Sea of Marmara, Dardanelles) that link Black and Aegean Seas

Geography
Some say that Turkey is the bridge between Europe and Asia. The Republic of Turkey, located in southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia, is bordered on the north by Bulgaria, Greece; Georgia, Armenia, and the Black Sea.

It has Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Naxçivaneast for company on the east and is neighbours with Iraq, Syria, and the Mediterranean Sea at its south and the Aegean Sea to its west. The total area of Turkey is 779,452 sq km (300,948 sq mi). The capital is Ankara; Istanbul is the largest city.

Climate
The Mediterranean and Aegean shores of Turkey experience long, hot summers and mild, rainy winters. Istanbul, located on the Bosporus, has an average January temperature of 0° C (32° F), while the July average is 23° C (73° F).

Precipitation averages about 697 mm (about 27.4 in) annually, and is heaviest between October and March.

Turkey is a Middle Eastern nation that lies both in Europe and in Asia. About 3 per cent of the country occupies the easternmost tip of southern Europe, a region called Thrace.

Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, lies in this region of green, fertile hills and valleys.

Turkey was created in 1923 from the Turkish remnants of the Ottoman Empire. Soon thereafter the country instituted secular laws to replace traditional religious fiats. In 1945 Turkey joined the UN and in 1949 it became a member of NATO.

Turkey occupied the northern portion of Cyprus in 1974 to prevent a Greek takeover of the island; relations between the two countries remain strained.

Periodic military offensives against Kurdish terrorists have dislocated part of the population in southeast Turkey and have drawn international condemnation.

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