Turkish Vans

The Turkish Van is a stocky natural breed of cat that comes from the Lake Van region of eastern Turkey.  They are separated by a mountain range and natural terrain from the Turkish Angora which is from the west of the country.

History:  In 1955, two British tourists, Laura Lushington and Sonia Halliday were photographing eastern Turkey and writing about their experiences in their journals.  Some native Turkmen gave the two ladies a pair of unrelated kittens as a gift that were solid white with colour on their heads and tail colour to match.  They bred the kittens together at maturity and the offspring came out identical to their parents with the same colours and markings.  The first bred pair were Red (Auburn and White).  Later the two ladies returned to Turkey and obtained several more pairs which became the Foundation for the breed.

These two ladies new they were onto something exciting and worked to get this natural breed established in the prestigious GCCF, a Cat Fancy association in the U.K.  They established them under the name 'The Turkish Cat' and called their cattery name Van.  Later they gave this name up for use in the name of the breed which then became the Turkish Van.

Turkish Vans have been discovered in history to have been around for thousands of years.  One of the earliest pieces of history has them featured on Hittite shields.