Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in West Asia and is the western-most extension of continental Asia. It constitutes most of the territory of contemporary Turkey and is bounded by the Turkish Straits to the northwest, the Black Sea to the north, the Armenian Highlands to the east, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Aegean Sea to the west. The eastern border of Anatolia is a line between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Black Sea, bounded by the Armenian Highlands to the east and Mesopotamia to the southeast, thus Anatolia comprises approximately the western two-thirds of the Asian territory of Turkey.

Anatolia has been the cradle of civilizations for many centuries and has a rich history. The Hittites, who migrated from the area east of the Black Sea, were in control of Anatolia around 2000 BC. Their civilization rivaled that of the Egyptians and Babylonians. In the 12th century BC, their empire fell to the Assyrians. Small seaboard states grew up, only to fall to the Greeks, who colonized the entire Aegean coast in about the 8th century BC. According to legend, they first laid siege to the city-state of Troy during the Trojan War. In the 15th century, the Ottoman Turks conquered the peninsula and made Istanbul (then known as Constantinople) their capital. The Ottoman Empire lasted until 1922, and the next year, Asia Minor became the larger part of the Turkish Republic under the leadership of Kemal Atatürk.

The name "Anatolia" has an interesting history. Until the late nineteenth century, on all maps produced in the Ottoman Empire, the name Anatolia was used to indicate part of the empire situated in the peninsula of Asia Minor. The approximate borders of Anatolia extend from the city of Alexandretta, todays city of Iskenderun, and from there extending northeastward through the towns of Kahraman-Marash, Malatia, Erzinjan, and Baiburt to the Black Sea coast cities of Hopa and Batumi. The remaining territory of present-day Turkey is not Anatolia, but most of it was better known as the "Armenian Highlands," where historic Greater Armenia was located. Thus, prior to the changes around the 1920s, the name of Anatolia or Asia Minor referred to the territory to the west of the Armenian Highlands or Armenian Plateau, which consists of around 60% of the territory of the Republic of Turkey. The Greek name "Anatolia," according to all the accounts mentioned, until the 1920s referred only to the peninsula of Asia Minor.