Vehicle registration plates of Turkey

A contemporary Turkish license plate

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

Appearance

The license plate is rectangular in shape and made of aluminum. On the left, there is the country code "TR" in a 4×10 cm blue stripe like in EU countries (without the 12 golden stars). 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 and Ğ.

The blue stripe

Euroband like blue stripe on the left hand side of the plates

An old, pre-1995, plate without the blue stripe.

The blue stripe was introduced after the entry of Turkey to the European Customs Union in 1995,^[1] in accordance to compliance to EU laws. Since then, the blue stripe area is often modified by car owners (even by some parliament members like Devlet Bahçeli^[1]). The predominant modification of this sorts is to replace the blue color with red and put up the crescent and the star of the Turkish flag. This type of modification is in the grey area of the law, for it does not clearly specify which color is to be used in the stripe.^[2]

Additionally, vehicle inspection stickers are often stuck on this area.

Size

License plate for motorcycles.

• 15×24 cm in rear only for motorbikes, motorcycles and tractors with rubber wheels,
• 11×52 cm in front and rear for cars, 21×32 cm rear available for off-roadss, vans, trucks and busses. The size is 15×30 cm for imported vehicles if the regular plate does not fit.

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",

In some provinces, numbering is categorized in groups for tax collecting offices of different districts, for example Dolmuş in Ankara have plates of the form "06 J 9999" and a(ny) vehicle from Polatlı, Ankara has plates of the form '06 Pxx 99', "06 ET XXXX" from Etimesgut district. On the other hand, a Dolmuş in Eskişehir has a plate of the form "26 M 9999".

99 - two digits prefix denoting the location, shows the province code number of the main residence of car holder. There are 81 provinces as listed below:

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.

Types

Type (Used by)	Appearance	Format and Explanation
Private vehicles		N/A
Provincial governments, university rectors		99 A 9999 (red characters on white background):
Police		99 A 99999, 99 AA 999 or 99 AAA 999 (white on blue)
Members of international organizations		99 B 9999 (blue on white)
Diplomatic corps		Corps Diplomatique: 99 CD 999: (green on white)
Consulates		99 CC 9999: (white on green)
Temporary		99 G 9999 (black on yellow). Valid duration for max. 1 month.
Temporary customs	39 GMR 032	99 GMR 999 (red on green)
Foreigners with temporary residence permit		99 MA 999 to 99 MZ 999: (Black on white)
Syrians with temporary residence permit		99 SAA 999 to 99 SZZ 999: (Black on white)
Taxis (Istanbul province only)		34 TAA 99 to 34 TKZ 99
Taxis (except Istanbul province)		99 T 9999
Vanity plates		Turkey allows vanity plates to be issued. A desired text can be written instead of the serial letter place. 99 [TEXT] 999
The presidential cars		The license plate of the president has no numbers, instead it uses the Presidential Seal of Turkey. Other convoy cars use the format CB 00X ("CB" for Cumhurbaşkanı' (English: President)), with golden text on a red background.
Vice-speaker and chairpeople of the parliamentary commissions	TBMM 037	TBMM signifies Grand National Assembly of Turkey
Speaker, prime minister, members of the cabinet, chief of the general staff, the highest ranking commanders of armies, some undersecretaries	0019	Gold on red (9999)
Province governors	18 0024	99 9999 (golden on red), with first two-digits as province code number prefix
Official vehicles belonging to the government and public administrations		99 AA 999: (white on black), with first two-digits as province code number prefix
Military	706001	999999 (black on a white rectangle of 7×20 cm on the bumper of the vehicle, painted by a stencil). 000999 General Staff of the Republic of Turkey, 100999 First Army, 200999 Second Army, 300999 Third Army, 400999 Aegean Army, 500999 Navy, 600999 Air Force, 700999 Gendarmerie. In Gendarmerie plates 7XX999, sometimes the XX digits indicates the province code of the gendarmerie located in.
Pre-1996 format (private vehicles)	59 AF 2701	These plates lacked the blue stripe (euroband) on the left hand side.
Pre-1962 format (private vehicles)		These old plates had the name of the province written in full, black background with white letters and usage of dashes.
Pre-mid 1990s format (police)	06 A 0123	white on green

Location codes

Location codes by map.

First two digits indicating the province code:

As it can also be inferred from the table, 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. Therefore, these province names go chronologically.

References

External links

• Media related to License plates of Turkey at Wikimedia Commons
• License plates of Turkey
• Location codes on a map and more detailed info about district codes