Districts of Turkey

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The 81 provinces of Turkey are divided into 957 districts (ilçeler; sing. ilçe). In the early Turkish Republic and in the Ottoman Empire, the corresponding unit was the kaza.

The district bears the same name as the district capital (with the exception of the district of Antakya (in Hatay)).

A district may cover both rural and urban areas. One district of a province is the "central district" (merkez ilçe); the central district is administered by an appointed "vice-governor" and other districts by a "sub-governor" (kaymakam). Each municipality (belediye) in the urban zone (belde) of a district is an administrative division subject to elections depending on the province.

Each district (including the central district) corresponds to a specific area within the province. The area is administered from the "district center" (ilçe merkezi, not to be confused with "central district" merkez ilçe), where resides the appointed kaymakam, the head official for that district, who is responsible to the province governor. Central districts do not have kaymakams, they are administered by a vice-governor.

All district centers have municipalities (belediye), headed by an elected mayor, who administers a defined municipality area (usually matching the urban zone) for defined municipal matters. A growing number of settlements, which are outside of district centers, have municipalities as well, usually because their population requires one. These are (also) called belde. They haven't (yet) become district centers because there is one close by, or due to some other reason. A belde has a mayor (responsible for its municipal zone), but not a kaymakam, and depends administratively on the district center of the district within whose boundaries it is situated.

At the bottom end, there are villages, who have elected muhtars taking care of specific administrative matters such as residence registration. Furthermore, each quarter (mahalle) of a district center and belde has a muhtar as well, also for specific administrative questions. The designation slightly differs (köy muhtarı for village muhtar, mahalle muhtarı for quarter muhtar) and also the tasks, which are largely similar but adapted to their locality.

In some cases, a belde has become larger than the district center it depends on, and a district center larger than the central district it depends on (and many other district centers). One final note is the büyükşehir belediyesi (or greater municipality) for metropolises like İstanbul or İzmir, an extra administrative layer which has at its top an elected head mayor, who oversee a number of municipalities and mayors.

The districts and their populations (as of December 31, 2008) are listed below, by region and by province (with capital district in bold text):

However, it should be noted that, in 16 provinces with greater municipality, the total population of province is not equal to the summation of all district populations. In greater municipalities some (in case of İstanbul and Kocaeli all) districts are within the capital city. Those intercity districts are shown as " (central district) " . The population in central districts is also shown in the boldface capital city. So in greater municipalities, the actual population of the province is the sum of all district populations except the boldface capital city. (This is true only for 16 greater municipalities; Adana, Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, Diyarbakır, Erzurum, Eskişehir, Gaziantep, İstanbul, İzmir, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Mersin, Sakarya, Samsun. For the remaining 65 provinces the population figures for districts add up to total province population ) (see: Metropolitan centers in Turkey)

Contents

Aegean Region (Ege Bölgesi)

İzmir Province

Districts of İzmir

Manisa Province

Districts of Manisa

Aydın Province

Districts of Aydın

Denizli Province

Districts of Denizli

MuÄŸla Province

Districts of MuÄŸla

Afyonkarahisar Province

Districts of Afyonkarahisar

Kütahya Province

Districts of Kütahya

UÅŸak Province

Districts of UÅŸak

Black Sea Region (Karadeniz Bölgesi)

Samsun Province

Districts of Samsun

Trabzon Province

Districts of Trabzon

Ordu Province

Districts of Ordu

Zonguldak Province

Districts of Zonguldak

Tokat Province

Districts of Tokat

Çorum Province

Districts of Çorum

Giresun Province

Districts of Giresun

Kastamonu Province

Districts of Kastamonu

Düzce Province

Districts of Düzce

Amasya Province

Districts of Amasya

Rize Province

Districts of Rize

Bolu Province

Districts of Bolu

Karabük Province

Districts of Karabük

Sinop Province

Districts of Sinop

Bartın Province

Districts of Bartın

Artvin Province

Districts of Artvin

Gümüşhane Province

Districts of Gümüşhane

Bayburt Province

Districts of Bayburt

Central Anatolia Region (İç Anadolu Bölgesi)

Population: 11.459.292

Ankara Province

Districts of Ankara

Konya Province

Districts of Konya

Kayseri Province

Districts of Kayseri

EskiÅŸehir Province

Districts of EskiÅŸehir

Sivas Province

Districts of Sivas

Yozgat Province

Districts of Yozgat

Aksaray Province

Districts of Aksaray

NiÄŸde Province

Districts of NiÄŸde

NevÅŸehir Province

Districts of NevÅŸehir

Kırıkkale Province

Districts of Kırıkkale

Karaman Province

Districts of Karaman

Kırşehir Province

Districts of Kırşehir

Çankırı Province

Districts of Çankırı

Eastern Anatolia Region (Doğu Anadolu Bölgesi)

Population: 5.744.243

Van Province

Districts of Van

Erzurum Province

Districts of Erzurum

Malatya Province

Districts of Malatya

Elazığ Province

Districts of Elazığ

Ağrı Province

Districts of Ağrı

MuÅŸ Province

Districts of MuÅŸ

Bitlis Province

Districts of Bitlis

Kars Province

Districts of Kars

Hakkâri Province

Districts of Hakkâri

Bingöl Province

Districts of Bingöl

Erzincan Province

Districts of Erzincan

Iğdır Province

Districts of Iğdır

Ardahan Province

Districts of Ardahan

Tunceli Province

Districts of Tunceli

Marmara Region (Marmara Bölgesi)

Population: 21.044.783

İstanbul Province

Districts of İstanbul

Bursa Province

Districts of Bursa

Kocaeli Province

Districts of Kocaeli

Balıkesir Province

Districts of Balıkesir

Sakarya Province

Districts of Sakarya

TekirdaÄŸ Province

Districts of TekirdaÄŸ

Çanakkale Province

Districts of Çanakkale

Edirne Province

Districts of Edirne

Kırklareli Province

Districts of Kırklareli

Yalova Province

Districts of Yalova

Bilecik Province

Districts of Bilecik

Mediterranean Region (Akdeniz Bölgesi)

Population: 9.050.691

Adana Province

Districts of Adana

Antalya Province

Districts of Antalya

Mersin Province

Districts of Mersin

Hatay Province

Districts of Hatay

KahramanmaraÅŸ Province

Districts of KahramanmaraÅŸ

Osmaniye Province

Districts of Osmaniye

Isparta Province

Districts of Isparta

Burdur Province

Districts of Burdur

Southeastern Anatolia Region (Güneydoğu Anadolu Bölgesi)

Population: 7.350.752

Gaziantep Province

Districts of Gaziantep

Şanlıurfa Province

Districts of Şanlıurfa

Diyarbakır Province

Districts of Diyarbakır

Mardin Province

Districts of Mardin

Adıyaman Province

Districts of Adıyaman

Batman Province

Districts of Batman

Şırnak Province

Districts of Şırnak

Siirt Province

Districts of Siirt

Kilis Province

Kilis
Musabeyli
Polateli
Elbeyli

See also