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.
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
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. A modification of the blue stripe area of a Turkish number plate (one common variant):
06 GH 1693
Size
15×24 cm in rear only for motorbikes, motorcycles and tractors with rubber wheels,
11×52 cm in front and 21×32 cm rear for cars, pickups, 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"
"99 XXX 99", "99 XXX 999"
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.
These plates lacked the blue stripe 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.
Location codes
Location codes by map.
First two digits indicating the province code:
3
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 the newer additions. Therefore these province names go chronologically.
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