Turkey

Turkey is a state in the Near East, located between Europe - with the historic region of Thrace - and Asia, with the bulk of the territory made up of the Anatolian Peninsula. The two parts are separated by the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits and by the Sea of Marmara which connect the Black Sea with the Aegean Sea. Most of the Turkish territory is made up of a large plateau, with an average height of about 1.100 meters, which occupies the central belt of the Anatolian Peninsula, two mountain ranges cross almost the whole country from west to east, merging into a vast region of plateaus and reliefs, the Armenian Acrocoro, which includes the massif of Mount Ararat of 5.123 meters, the highest peak in Turkey. The only plains of the Asian part are the coastal strips, especially close to the Aegean coast and the Black Sea. The small portion of the territory located in Europe is, vice-versa, largely flat.

The Turkish territory is crossed by a few large rivers, with an irregular regime. The main one is the 1.150 km long Kızılırmak, which rises on the Anatolian plateau and flows into the Black Sea. It also counts the Tigris and Euphrates sources, the two important rivers of the Mesopotamian region, which then continue their course towards Syria and Iraq to flow into the Persian Gulf. On Turkish territory there are numerous lakes of considerable size, (the largest is Lake Van, about 3.755 square kilometers).

Turkey ratified the Paris Agreement in October 2021 and is aiming to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 41% from business-as-usual levels by 2030. This change of course has allowed MASE and the Republic of Turkey to sign an Agreement and begin building relationships from an environmental point of view.

Counterpart: Presidency of the Turkish Republic

Intervention areas:

• Water resource management, (SDG 6).
• Ensure a better access to energy, (SDG 7).
• Encourage sustainable consumption and production patterns, (SDG 12).
• Strengthen and coordinate the efforts to combat climate change, (SDG 13).
• Promote the sustainable use of the seas, (SDG 14).
• Protect, restore and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, land degradation and biodiversity loss, (SDG 15).