Vehicle registration plates of Turkey

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.

A contemporary Turkish license plate

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.

Dimensions
  • 150×240 mm in rear only for motorbikes, motorcycles and tractors with rubber wheels,
  • 110×520 mm in front and rear for cars, 210×320 mm rear available for off-road vehicles, vans, trucks and busses. The size is 150×300 mm for imported vehicles if the regular plate does not fit.
License plate for motorcycles

Blue stripe
Euroband like blue stripe on the left hand side of the plates
A 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 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.

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", "99 XXX 999"

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)AppearanceFormat 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)
Gendarmerie
06 JAA 1234
 99 JAA 999 (white on blue). Since 2018, replaced old military plates.
Coast Guard
34 SGH 1234
 99 SGH 999 (white on blue). Since 2018, replaced old military plates.
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)[3]
Temporary


99 G 9999 (black on yellow). Valid duration for max. 1 month.
Temporary customs

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
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.
Deputy Speaker and chairpeople of the parliamentary commissions

TBMM signifies Grand National Assembly of Turkey
Speaker, Vice President, Members of the Cabinet, Chief of the General Staff, the highest ranking commanders of armies, some undersecretaries

Gold on red (9999)
Province governors

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

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)

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.
Pre-1996 format (police)

white on green

Location codes
Location codes by map

First two digits indicating the province code:

CodeProvinceCodeProvinceCodeProvince
01Adana28Giresun55Samsun
02Adıyaman29Gümüşhane56Siirt
03Afyonkarahisar30Hakkari57Sinop
04Ağrı31Hatay58Sivas
05Amasya32Isparta59Tekirdağ
06Ankara33Mersin60Tokat
07Antalya34İstanbul61Trabzon
08Artvin35İzmir62Tunceli
09Aydın36Kars63Şanlıurfa
10Balıkesir37Kastamonu64Uşak
11Bilecik38Kayseri65Van
12Bingöl39Kırklareli66Yozgat
13Bitlis40Kırşehir67Zonguldak
14Bolu41Kocaeli68Aksaray
15Burdur42Konya69Bayburt
16Bursa43Kütahya70Karaman
17Çanakkale44Malatya71Kırıkkale
18Çankırı45Manisa72Batman
19Çorum46Kahramanmaraş73Şırnak
20Denizli47Mardin74Bartın
21Diyarbakır48Muğla75Ardahan
22Edirne49Muş76Iğdır
23Elazığ50Nevşehir77Yalova
24Erzincan51Niğde78Karabük
25Erzurum52Ordu79Kilis
26Eskişehir53Rize80Osmaniye
27Gaziantep54Sakarya81Düzce

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, these province names go chronologically.

References
  1. "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)
  3. Bellingcat Investigation Team (October 15, 2018). "Examining CCTV Videos of the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul Connected to Khashoggi's Disappearance". Bellingcat. The license plate number of this van is 34 CC 2342, which corresponds to the code for Istanbul (34) and vehicles used by consulates (CC).
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.