The Republic of Turkey, which is located in an area where the Asian, European and African continents come very close to each other, is surrounded by Georgia, Armenia, Nakhichevan and Iran to the east, Bulgaria and Greece to the west and Syria and Iraq to the south. The majority of these borders were determined by agreements after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey is a passageway for the old Asian Turkish cultures to reach Europe due to her location and is at the same time the window of the west opening to the east. Turkey's coastlines, which encompass her on three sides with the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Black Sea to the north and the Aegean Sea to the west, make the country not only a neighbor to the nearby regions, but to the entire world as well. Turkey has become the center of the great trade and migration routes due to these long shores and her place as a bridge between continents. Turkey is a NATO member country and at the same time plays an active role on the subject of developing multilateral economic cooperation among the Islamic countries.
The area of the Republic of Turkey is 814,578 km2. A total of 3 percent of the area is located in Thrace on the European continent. The remaining 97 percent, which is located on the Asian continent, is usually called Anatolia. Turkey, which resembles a rectangle, has a width of approximately 550 km and a length of about 1,500 km. The most distant point to the east is the point that intersects with the borders of Iran and Nakhichevan. The point farthest to the west is the Avlaka Cape at Gokceada, farthest to the north is the Inceburun Cape at Sinop Province and to the south is the Beysun Village at Hatay Province. The length of the coastline is 8,333 km and the length of the land borders is 2,875 km. Turkey, with this area, has more extensive lands than all of her neighbors with the exception of Iran.
The population of the Republic of Turkey is approximately 64 million. It is estimated that the population will be 65.5 million in 2000 and 74 million in 2010. The geographical regions in Turkey display different characteristics from the aspect of the distribution of population. Almost half of the population in Turkey is concentrated in the coastal regions. The interior regions usually have less population. Turkey has abandoned her population increase incentive policy as of the 1950s and started family planning.