The blue stripe was introduced after the entry of Turkey to the European Customs Union in 1996,[1] in accordance to compliance to EU laws.

Since then, the blue stripe area is often modified by car owners (even by some parliament members like Devlet Bahçeli[1]).

The predominant modification of this sorts is to replace the blue color with red crescent and the star of the Turkish flag.

99 - two digits prefix denoting the location, shows the province code number of the main residence of car holder.

Diplomatic and consular registration plates are issued with randomly generated numbers since 16 August 2004 for security concerns.