Vehicle registration plates of Turkey

A contemporary Turkish license plate

Turkish car number plates are license plates found on Turkish vehicles. The plates use an indirect numbering system associated with the geographical info. In Turkey, license plates are made by authorized private workshops.

Appearance

The license plate is rectangular in shape and made of aluminum. On the left, there is the country code "TR" in a 4×10 cm blue stripe like in EU countries (without the 12 golden stars). The text is in black characters on white background, and for official vehicles white on black. On all vehicles two plates have to be present, being one in front and the other in rear except motorcycles and tractors. The serial letters use the Turkish letters except Ç, Ş, İ, Ö, Ü and Ğ.

The blue stripe

File:Non-EU-section-with-TR.svg

Euroband like blue stripe on the left hand side of the plates

File:OldLicPlateTR.jpg

An old, pre-1995, plate without the blue stripe.

The blue stripe was introduced after the entry of Turkey to the European Customs Union in 1995, in accordance to compliance to EU laws. Since then, the blue stripe area is often modified by car owners (even by some parliament members like Devlet Bahçeli). The predominant modification of this sorts is to replace the blue color with red and put up the crescent and the star of the Turkish flag. This type of modification is in the grey area of the law, for it does not clearly specify which color is to be used in the stripe.

Additionally, vehicle inspection stickers are often stuck on this area.

Size

File:Motorcycle license plate Turkey (34 - Istanbul).jpg

License plate for motorcycles.

• 15×24 cm in rear only for motorbikes, motorcycles and tractors with rubber wheels,
• 11×52 cm in front and rear for cars, 21×32 cm rear available for off-roadss, vans, trucks and busses. The size is 15×30 cm for imported vehicles if the regular plate does not fit.

Numbering system

The text format on the plates is one of the following:

• "99 X 9999", "99 X 99999"
• "99 XX 999", "99 XX 9999" or
• "99 XXX 99",

In some provinces, numbering is categorized in groups for tax collecting offices of different districts, for example Dolmuş in Ankara have plates of the form "06 J 9999" and a(ny) vehicle from Polatlı, Ankara has plates of the form '06 Pxx 99', "06 ET XXXX" from Etimesgut district. On the other hand, a Dolmuş in Eskişehir has a plate of the form "26 M 9999".

99 - two digits prefix denoting the location, shows the province code number of the main residence of car holder. There are 81 provinces as listed below:

X/XX/XXX – one, two or three letters.

9999/999/99 – four, three or two digits, depending on the number of letters before, not exceeding six letters and digits altogether.

Types

Type (Used by)	Appearance	Format and Explanation
Private vehicles	120px	N/A
Provincial governments, university rectors	120px	99 A 9999 (red characters on white background):
Police		99 A 99999, 99 AA 999 or 99 AAA 999 (white on blue)
Members of international organizations		99 B 9999 (blue on white)
Diplomatic corps		Corps Diplomatique: 99 CD 999: (green on white)
Consulates		99 CC 9999: (white on green)
Temporary		99 G 9999 (black on yellow). Valid duration for max. 1 month.
Temporary customs	x20px 39 GMR 032	99 GMR 999 (red on green)
Foreigners with temporary residence permit		99 MA 999 to 99 MZ 999: (Black on white)
Syrians with temporary residence permit		99 SAA 999 to 99 SZZ 999: (Black on white)
Taxis (Istanbul province only)		34 TAA 99 to 34 TKZ 99
Taxis (except Istanbul province)		99 T 9999
Vanity plates		Turkey allows vanity plates to be issued. A desired text can be written instead of the serial letter place. 99 [TEXT] 999
The presidential cars		The license plate of the president has no numbers, instead it uses the Presidential Seal of Turkey. Other convoy cars use the format CB 00X ("CB" for Cumhurbaşkanı' (English: President)), with golden text on a red background.
Vice-speaker and chairpeople of the parliamentary commissions	TBMM 037	TBMM signifies Grand National Assembly of Turkey
Speaker, prime minister, members of the cabinet, chief of the general staff, the highest ranking commanders of armies, some undersecretaries	0019	Gold on red (9999)
Province governors	18 0024	99 9999 (golden on red), with first two-digits as province code number prefix
Official vehicles belonging to the government and public administrations		99 AA 999: (white on black), with first two-digits as province code number prefix
Military	706001	999999 (black on a white rectangle of 7×20 cm on the bumper of the vehicle, painted by a stencil). 000999 General Staff of the Republic of Turkey, 100999 First Army, 200999 Second Army, 300999 Third Army, 400999 Aegean Army, 500999 Navy, 600999 Air Force, 700999 Gendarmerie. In Gendarmerie plates 7XX999, sometimes the XX digits indicates the province code of the gendarmerie located in.
Pre-1996 format (private vehicles)	59 AF 2701	These plates lacked the blue stripe (euroband) on the left hand side.
Pre-1962 format (private vehicles)		These old plates had the name of the province written in full, black background with white letters and usage of dashes.

Location codes

Location codes by map.

First two digits indicating the province code:

Province	Code	Province	Code	Province	Code
Adana	01	Giresun	28	Samsun	55
Adıyaman	02	Gümüşhane	29	Siirt	56
Afyonkarahisar	03	Hakkari	30	Sinop	57
Ağrı	04	Hatay	31	Sivas	58
Amasya	05	Isparta	32	Tekirdağ	59
Ankara	06	Mersin	33	Tokat	60
Antalya	07	İstanbul	34	Trabzon	61
Artvin	08	İzmir	35	Tunceli	62
Aydın	09	Kars	36	Şanlıurfa	63
Balıkesir	10	Kastamonu	37	Uşak	64
Bilecik	11	Kayseri	38	Van	65
Bingöl	12	Kırklareli	39	Yozgat	66
Bitlis	13	Kırşehir	40	Zonguldak	67
Bolu	14	Kocaeli	41	Aksaray	68
Burdur	15	Konya	42	Bayburt	69
Bursa	16	Kütahya	43	Karaman	70
Çanakkale	17	Malatya	44	Kırıkkale	71
Çankırı	18	Manisa	45	Batman	72
Çorum	19	Kahramanmaraş	46	Şırnak	73
Denizli	20	Mardin	47	Bartın	74
Diyarbakır	21	Muğla	48	Ardahan	75
Edirne	22	Muş	49	Iğdır	76
Elazığ	23	Nevşehir	50	Yalova	77
Erzincan	24	Niğde	51	Karabük	78
Erzurum	25	Ordu	52	Kilis	79
Eskişehir	26	Rize	53	Osmaniye	80
Gaziantep	27	Sakarya	54	Düzce	81

As it can also be inferred from the table, province names until code 67 go alphabetically —with the exception of Mersin, Kahramanmaraş and Şanlıurfa provinces for their previous names taken in account were İçel, Maraş and Urfa, respectively. The ones after the original 67 provinces are newer additions. Therefore these province names go chronologically, i.e. when they became a province.

External links

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
• License plates of Turkey
• Location codes on a map and more detailed info about district codes