The determination and problems of administrative areas in Turkey: Sumbas example

Sumbas county, located in the Adana district in the Mediterrannean Region is in the North-west of Osmaniye. It has 16 villages, 48 avenues and 17 transhumance settlements. Sumbas is the central settlement which gives its name to the county.The main aims of this study are; to determine the reasons of foundation of Sumbas county, which is a model for the civil administration areas like cities, counties, subdistrict and villages that are accepted legal in Turkey; to put forward in a great deal the specific criteria in creating administrative areas; according to the essences of administrative geography and regional planning, to determine the features required by the settlements that can be city or county centers; to study and analyze Sumbas county in terms of administrative geography; to specify clearly the developments and changes occured depending on the administrative function in the center of 14 city, that are city centers in the last 20 years and Sumbas county.The study comprises the applications for determining the civil administrative areas as the model of Sumbas county in Turkey from past to today and the problems springing from these applications and the advice for the solution to these problems.This study is a doctoral thesis employing the methods and techniques of the disciplines such as administrative geography, rural and urban area planning and regional planning belonging to the popular science branches of geography such as regional geography, humane and economic geography.The study emphasizes the concepts of ?the Region, civil administrative area, cenral Location and urbanization? and the theoretical approaches to them in different scientific circles.The study dealing with Turkey?s civil administrative structure in the period before the Republic and the Republican period in a certain chronological and detailed order, shows the country?s civil administration structure with the stages it has undergane.The study deals with the official decisions, law proposals and their rationale for the cities and counties between 1989-2008 and for Sumbas, which became settlement with the municipality in 1991, and county in 1996. It explains the legal frame of the studies for the specifications of administrative areas in Turkey.In the study, the administrative geographical features of Sumbas county are searched, the central features of the county center and the potential of becoming town are expressed, and the rural character of the settlement in the frame of central places theory is underlined.Key Words: Turkey, Sumbas, Administration, Property Administration Area, District, Central Place, Central Functions, Urbanization, City, County, District, Town, Village.