The Eastern Anatolia region (Turkish: Doğu Anadolu Bölgesi) is a geographical region of Turkey. The most populous province in the region is Van Province. Other populous provinces are Malatya, Erzurum and Elazığ.
It is bordered by the Black Sea Region and Georgia in the north, the Central Anatolia Region in the west, the Mediterranean Region in the southwest, the Southeastern Anatolia Region and Iraq in the south, and Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran in the east.
Armenians in Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Ermenileri; Armenian: Թուրքահայեր or Թրքահայեր, T’urk’ahayer lit. 'Turkish Armenians'), one of the indigenous peoples of Turkey, have an estimated population of 40,000 to 50,000 today, down from a population of almost 2 million Armenians between the years 1914 and 1921. Today, the overwhelming majority of Turkish Armenians are concentrated in Istanbul. They support their own newspapers, churches and schools, and the majority belong to the Armenian Apostolic faith and a minority of Armenians in Turkey belong to the Armenian Catholic Church or to the Armenian Evangelical Church. They are not considered part of the Armenian diaspora, since they have been living in their historical homeland for more than four thousand years.
Until the Armenian genocide of 1915, most of the Armenian population of Turkey (then the Ottoman Empire) lived in the eastern parts of the country that Armenians call Western Armenia (roughly corresponding to the modern Eastern Anatolia region).
The Central Anatolia region (Turkish: İç Anadolu Bölgesi) is a geographical region of Turkey. The largest city in the region is Ankara, the capital of Turkey. Other big cities are Konya, Kayseri, Eskişehir, Sivas, Aksaray and Kırşehir.
Located in Central Turkey, it is bordered by the Aegean region to the west, the Black Sea region to the north, the Eastern Anatolia region to the east, and the Mediterranean region to the south. It also shares a very slight border with the Marmara region in Bilecik Province.
The Southeastern Anatolia region (Turkish: Güneydoğu Anadolu Bölgesi) is a geographical region of Turkey. The most populous city in the region is Gaziantep. Other big cities are Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır, Mardin and Adıyaman.
It is bordered by the Mediterranean region to the west, the Eastern Anatolia region to the north, Syria (Rojava) to the south, and Iraq (Southern Kurdistan) to the southeast.
Lake Van (Turkish: Van Gölü; Armenian: Վանա լիճ, romanized: Vana lič̣; Kurdish: Gola Wanê) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey in the provinces of Van and Bitlis, in the Armenian highlands. It is a saline soda lake, receiving water from many small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains. It is one of the world's few endorheic lakes (a lake having no outlet) of size greater than 3,000 square kilometres (1,200 sq mi) and has 38% of the country's surface water (including rivers). A volcanic eruption blocked its original outlet in prehistoric times. It is situated at 1,640 m (5,380 ft) above sea level. Despite the high altitude and winter averages below 0 °C (32 °F), high salinity usually prevents it from freezing; the shallow northern section can freeze, but rarely.
The geographical regions of Turkey comprise seven regions (Turkish: bölge), which were originally defined at the country's First Geography Congress in 1941. The regions are subdivided into 31 sections (Turkish: bölüm), which are further divided into numerous areas (Turkish: yöre), as defined by microclimates and bounded by local geographic formations.
"Regions" as defined in this context are merely for geographic, demographic, and economic purposes and do not refer to an administrative division.
The Zazas (Zazaki: Şarê ma, lit. 'Our people'), also known as Kird, Kirmanc, or Dimili, are an Iranian people who speak Zazaki, a language of the Indo-European language family. They mostly live in the Eastern Anatolia and Southeastern Anatolia regions of Turkey. Zazas generally consider themselves Kurds, and are often described as Zaza Kurds by scholars.