Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye [ˈtyɾcije]), officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country located mainly on the peninsula of Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It shares borders with Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest; the Black Sea to the north; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; and the Aegean Sea to the west. Turks form the vast majority of the nation's population and Kurds are the largest minority. Turkey's capital is Ankara, while its largest city and financial centre is Istanbul (the imperial capital until 1923). One of the world's earliest permanently settled regions, present-day Turkey was home to important Neolithic sites like Göbekli Tepe, and was inhabited by ancient civilisations such as the Hattians, other Anatolian peoples and Mycenaean Greeks.