Carbon fibers with their high performance are critically important materials for various industries. Coal-based isotropic and mesophase pitches, despite their smaller market share of 10%, can be good alternative to polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based carbon fiber particularly for premium markets such as aviation and defense industry where extraordinary properties like high thermal conductivity and Young modulus are required. Pitch-based carbon fiber production is a complicated process including raw material pretreatment, pitch preparation, melt-spinning, stabilization, carbonization, and graphitization. Each step has a significant influence on the properties and performance of the final carbon fiber product, and thus should be controlled effectively for preparing carbon fiber with desirable performance. In this study, a pyrolysis study has been undertaken on eight Turkish coals of different ranks from lignite to bituminous coals with ash contents varying from 7.25 to 49.20%. The coals have been pyrolyzed at 850 ºC for two hours under nitrogen atmosphere in the absence of oxygen during which the emission of released gases of H₂, CO₂, CO and CH₄ in situ measured. The amounts of char, tar and gas have been recorded for each coal. The results based on tar recoveries and aromatic groups as inferred from FTIR spectra were evaluated to find a suitable precursor for use in carbon fiber production. Kısrakdere lignite/sub-bituminous coal were selected and subjected to solvent extraction with tetraline at 400 ºC temperature and 100 bar pressure to determine the potential of this particular coal for carbon fiber development.