Introduction

Turkey is located in the northern hemisphere and bridges Europe and Asia. The bordering countries are Greece and Bulgaria to the north-west, Georgia and Armenia to the north-east, the Islamic Republic of Iran in the east and the Syrian Arab Republic and Iraq in the south-east (Fig. 1.1). The country is surrounded by the Aegean Sea to the west, the Black Sea to the north and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Marmara Sea, with its passages in Çanakkale Straits (Dardanelles) and Bosphorus, connects the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea.