Turkey , or officially the Republic of Turkey , is a transcontinental country with most of its territory located in Anatolia and a small part in Thrace , the southeastern extension of the Balkan Peninsula . It borders Bulgaria to the northwest , Greece to the west, Georgia to the northeast , Armenia , Iran and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. It is surrounded by the Island of Cyprus and the Mediterranean Sea to the south , the Aegean Sea to the west and the Black Sea to the north . The Sea of Marmara , together with the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles , separates Anatolia from Thrace , that is , Asia from Europe .
