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

Euroband like blue stripe on the left hand side of the plates
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,[1] 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[1]). 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.[2]

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

Size

License plate for motorcycles.

Numbering system

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

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

N/A
Provincial governments, university rectors

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
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:

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

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.

References

  1. 1 2 "Plakadaki AB mavisine kırmızı etiketli protesto" (in Turkish). Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  2. ↑ Yurtsan Atakan (09-07-2008). "Bir dakika karanlığın AKP karşıtı versiyonu kırmızı bantlı plakalar" (in Turkish). Hürriyet. Retrieved 14 March 2013. Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

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