Bucak (also known as

nahiye A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...

) is the Turkish word for subdistrict, literally meaning "corner." In principle, all Turkish provinces ( tr, il) are divided into

districts A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

( tr, ilçe), and the districts were then divided into bucaks. Thus, bucak was the third-level administrative unit in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. Despite this designation, about half the districts had no bucaks. For example, in

Konya Province Konya Province ( tr, ), in southwest Central Anatolia, is the largest province of Turkey. The Province, provincial Capital (political), capital is the city of Konya. Its traffic code is 42. The Kızılören solar power plant in Konya will be ...

(the province with the highest number of settlements), among the 31 districts, only 15 districts had bucaks, and the total number of bucaks was 23. However, there was only one bucak in

Yalova Province Yalova Province ( tr, ) is a province in northwestern Turkey, on the eastern coast of the Sea of Marmara. Its adjacent provinces are Bursa to the south and Kocaeli to the east. The population of the Yalova Province was 203,741 in 2010. Prior t ...

. The total number of bucaks in Turkey was 634. Villages ( tr, köy) are parts of the districts or bucaks. Bucaks were important part of the Turkish administrative system prior to 1970, but since transportation facilities to villages were improved, the importance of bucaks declined. Until 2014, bucaks were almost defunct, but their legal entity continued. According to 2012 law 6360, bucaks as well as villages in 30 provinces were abolished, but the legal entity of bucak in other (51) provinces continued to exist. (See

Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey There are 81 provinces in Turkey ( tr, il). Among the 81 provinces, 30 provinces are designated metropolitan municipalities ( tr, büyükşehir belediyeleri). Metropolitan municipalities are subdivided into districts ( tr, ilçe), where each dist ...

) With changes approved on 11 September 2014, all bucaks were abolished.

References

{{Turkish terms for country subdivisions Subdivisions of Turkey Subdivisions of the Ottoman Empire