TURKISH VAN
The Turkish Van is a mostly white, similonghaired cat with a wide body, heavy bones, and a distinctive color pattern. The Van was named after the Lake Van district in Western Turkey, but there is no evidence that the breed originated in this area, nor is it the only place in Turkey where Van cats have been found. “There is no respository of Turkish Van cats in Turkey,” says one Van fancier, “and no one has ever found anybody in Turkey who bred for these cats specifically. It is revered by the Armenian people, who settle in the Lake Van district and who pronounce Van to rhyme with Don, not Dan.” Furthermore, while Turkish Vans have existed near Lake Van for centuries, if you went to this isolated region looking for a Van cat, you would be shown an odd-eyed white most likely a longhair that looks like the cat we know as the Turkish Angora. The reason for this confusion is a proclamation made by Mustafa kemal Ataturk, who founded the modern Repubic of Turkey in 1923. Ataturk declared that his successor would be someone who had been bitten on the ankle by an odd-eyed, white cat. This prediction understandably increased the popularity of odd-eyed white cats throughout Turkey.
