Turkey is surrounded by sea on three sides. The Mediterranean in the south, the Aegean in the west, and the Black Sea in the north. The Marmara Sea, in the northwest, includes the Istanbul and Dardanelles Straits and is a territorial water of Turkey.

Turkey, officially known as the Republic of Turkey, is both a European and an Asian country. It’s neighbour to the northwest is Bulgaria; Greece to the west; Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran to the east; Georgia to the northeast; Syria to the south; and Iraq to the southeast.

Located at the crossroads of the Balkans, Caucasus, Middle East, and eastern Mediterranean, Turkey is among the larger countries of the region in terms of territory and population. Its land area is greater than that of any European state. Nearly all of the country is in Asia, comprising the oblong peninsula of Asia Minor—also known as Anatolia and, in the east, part of a mountainous region sometimes known as the Armenian Highland. The remainder—Turkish Thrace (Trakya)—lies in the extreme south-eastern part of Europe, a tiny remnant of an empire that once extended over much of the Balkans.