Districts of Turkey

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Districts of Turkey" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Districts of Turkey Türkiye'nin ilçeleri (Turkish)
Category	Unitary state
Location	Republic of Turkey
Number	973
Populations	1,615 (Yalıhüyük)-Konya Province – 957,398 (Esenyurt)-Istanbul Province
Areas	5.2 km2 (2 sq mi) (Güngören)-Istanbul Province – 4,314.00 km2 (1,665.645 sq mi) (Siverek)-Şanlıurfa Province
Government	District government, National government
Subdivisions	Köy

Politics of Turkey
Constitution History Secularism Human rights LGBT rights
Legislature Grand National Assembly (Parliament) Speaker: Numan Kurtulmuş Leader of the Main Opposition Özgür Özel Political parties
Executive President (list) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz Cabinet (list) Current cabinet (67th) Ministries National Security Council Governors
Judiciary Constitutional Court President: Kadir Özkaya Court of Cassation President: Mehmet Akarca Court of Accounts President: Metin Yener Council of State President: Zeki Yiğit
Elections Electoral system Electoral cycle Supreme Election Council Recent elections Parliamentary 2015 2018 2023 Presidential 2014 2018 2023 Local 2014 2019 2024 Referendum 2007 2010 2017 Political parties
Foreign relations Ministry of Foreign Affairs Minister: Hakan Fidan (list) Diplomatic missions of Turkey Diplomatic missions in Turkey Nationality law Passport Visa requirements Visa policy Membership of international organizations Turkey and the United Nations Permanent Representative European Union Accession relations Customs Union
See also History History of the Republic Armed Forces
Turkey portal Other countries
v t e

The 81 provinces of Turkey are divided into 973 districts (ilçeler; sing. ilçe). In the Ottoman Empire and in the early Turkish Republic,^[when?] the corresponding unit was the kaza.

Most provinces bear the same name as their respective provincial capital districts. However, many urban provinces, designated as greater municipalities, have a center consisting of multiple districts, such as the provincial capital of Ankara province, The City of Ankara, comprising nine separate districts.^[1] Additionally three provinces, Kocaeli, Sakarya, and Hatay have their capital district named differently from their province, as İzmit, Adapazarı, and Antakya respectively.^[2]

A district may cover both rural and urban areas. In many provinces, one district of a province is designated the central district (merkez ilçe) from which the district is administered. The central district is administered by an appointed provincial deputy governor and other non-central districts by an appointed sub-governor (kaymakam) from their district center (ilçe merkezi) municipality. In these central districts the district center municipality also serves as the provincial center municipality. Both the deputy governor and sub-governors are responsible to the province governor (vali). Greater Municipalities, however, are administered differently where a separate seat of municipality exists for the entire province, having administrative power over all districts of the province.