Turkey that was located within a region where the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa draw closer to each other was surrounded by Georgia, Armenia and Nachicevan in the east, Bulgaria and Greece in the west and Syria and Iraq in the south. Most of these borders were shaped with the agreements that were concluded after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Due to its position, Turkey is a transit place where the ancient Asian Turkish culture is conveyed to Europe. At the same time, Turkey is a window of the western world that opens to the east. The maritime borders of Turkey that is surrounded by seas in three directions (the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and the Aegean Sea) lead the country to become the neighbour of both the near regions and the entire world. Due to these long coasts and its quality of the intercontinental bridge, the country has been the centre of great trade and migration routes. Turkey is a member country of NATO and it also plays an active role in the issue about the development of multilateral economic cooperation among Islamic countries.
The area of Republic of Turkey is 814.578 km2. Of this area, 3% of its lands are called the Eurasian lands located in the continent of Europe. The rest of its lands that consist of 97% of its surface area are called as Anatolia that is located in the continent of Asia. The width of the country that resembles a rectangle in shape is nearly 550 km and the length of the country is approximately 1500 km. Its farthest end in the East is the intersection point of the borders of Iran and Nachicevan. Its farthest end in the West is the cape of Avlaka in the Island of Imbros. The farthest border end in the north is the cape of Inceburun in the province of Sinop and the farthest end in the south is the village of Beysun in the province of Hatay. The length of the maritime borders is 833 km and the length of the territorial borders is 2875 km. With this surface area, Turkey has much wider lands than the areas of all of its neighbours excluding Iran.
The population of Republic of Turkey is approximately 63 millions. It has been estimated that the population will reach to the figure of 65.5 millions in the year of 2000 and 74 millions in the year of 2010. In respect of the distribution of population, the geographical regions in Turkey have different characteristics. Nearly the half of the population of the country is gathered within the coastal regions. The central regions are much less populated in general. The policy of the encouragement of population increase was abandoned since the year of 1950 in Turkey. Then, the policy of population planning has been implemented henceforth.