GEOGRAPHICAL
REGIONS

The Marmara Region
The Aegean Region
The Mediterranean Region
The Central Anatolia Region
The Black Sea Region
The Eastern Anatolia Region
The Southeastern Anatolia Region

The Geographical Regions

The First Geography Congress, which was convened in Ankara in 1941, at the conclusion of the research that had continued for a long time, separated Turkey into seven geographical regions. During the congress activities, the fact that Turkey is surrounded by sea on three sides, the presence of mountain ranges lying parallel to the length of the long coastline, the fact that these mountains separate the high, but slightly steep and uneven central section from the influence of the sea and because of this, factors such as the climate, natural plant cover and the distribution of types of agriculture, and the influences of these on the transportation systems and the types of housing between the coastal strip and the central sections, had been taken into consideration and it was possible to divide Turkey into four border and three inner regions. The first four of the seven regions determined were given the names of the seas which are adjacent to them (the Black Sea, the Marmara, the Aegean and the Mediterranean Regions). The other three regions were named in accordance with their location in the whole of Anatolia (Central, Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia Regions).

Turkey is located in the Alpine-Himalayas zone which is one of the substantial earthquake lines of the world. Turkey has a number of active faults, notably the North Anatolian fault which runs throughout the country. In the last century, seven big quakes have occurred on the North Anatolian fault, beginning with Erzincan in 1939 and following a constant route from east to west along the faults. The last one, the Marmara earthquake on 17 August 1999, of which the epicenter was the city of Izmit, measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale, took place in the eastern Marmara region on the North Anatolian fault. This quake, characterized as the "disaster of the century", was the biggest one in Turkish history after the Erzincan earthquake of 1939.