Vehicle registration plates of Turkey

Turkish vehicle registration plates are number plates found on Turkish vehicles. The plates use an indirect numbering system associated with the geographical info. In Turkey, number plates are made by authorized private workshops.

Appearance

Turkish number plate is rectangular in shape and made of aluminium. On the left, there is the country code "TR" in a 4×10 cm blue stripe like in EU countries. 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, Ğ and Latin letters Q, W and X.

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.

Blue stripe

The blue stripe was introduced after the entry of Turkey to the European Customs Union in 1996.
Additionally, vehicle inspection stickers were 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, a type of public transportation in Ankara have plates of the form "99 X 9999" and a vehicle from Polatlı, Ankara has plates of the form "99 XXX 99", "99 XX 9999" from Etimesgut district. On the other hand, a dolmuş in Eskişehir has a plate of the form "99 X 9999".
99 - two digits prefix denoting the location, shows the province code number of the main residence of car holder. There are 81 provinces in Turkey, each having an assigned number from 01 to 81.
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.
Diplomatic and consular registration plates are issued with randomly generated numbers since 16 August 2004 for security concerns.

Location codes

First two digits indicating the province code:

Code	Province	Code	Province	Code	Province
01	Adana	28	Giresun	55	Samsun
02	Adıyaman	29	Gümüşhane	56	Siirt
03	Afyonkarahisar	30	Hakkari	57	Sinop
04	Ağrı	31	Hatay	58	Sivas
05	Amasya	32	Isparta	59	Tekirdağ
06	Ankara	33	Mersin	60	Tokat
07	Antalya	34	İstanbul	61	Trabzon
08	Artvin	35	İzmir	62	Tunceli
09	Aydın	36	Kars	63	Şanlıurfa
10	Balıkesir	37	Kastamonu	64	Uşak
11	Bilecik	38	Kayseri	65	Van
12	Bingöl	39	Kırklareli	66	Yozgat
13	Bitlis	40	Kırşehir	67	Zonguldak
14	Bolu	41	Kocaeli	68	Aksaray
15	Burdur	42	Konya	69	Bayburt
16	Bursa	43	Kütahya	70	Karaman
17	Çanakkale	44	Malatya	71	Kırıkkale
18	Çankırı	45	Manisa	72	Batman
19	Çorum	46	Kahramanmaraş	73	Şırnak
20	Denizli	47	Mardin	74	Bartın
21	Diyarbakır	48	Muğla	75	Ardahan
22	Edirne	49	Muş	76	Iğdır
23	Elazığ	50	Nevşehir	77	Yalova
24	Erzincan	51	Niğde	78	Karabük
25	Erzurum	52	Ordu	79	Kilis
26	Eskişehir	53	Rize	80	Osmaniye
27	Gaziantep	54	Sakarya	81	Düzce

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.