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The genetic variability of 204 sheep from nine breeds (Awassi, Çine Çaparı, Karakaş, Karya, Karayaka, Morkaraman, Norduz, Sakız and Tuj) growing in four different regions (western, northern, eastern and south-eastern Anatolia) was assessed using 18 microsatellite loci. High mean number of alleles, allelic richness and factorial correspondence analysis showed the degree of admixture between native sheep breeds of Turkey. The Karya and Çine Çaparı breeds were observed as the most distinct of the breeds, and possible introgressions were detected in other breeds. It was found that 8.9% of genetic variation resulted from the difference between the populations. The genetic variation in Turkish breeds was not much higher than that of European breeds, which might be a consequence of the recent sharp decrease in sheep numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]