The article I wrote about “The Real Turkish Angora” has been published and expanded upon in a Turkish cat magazine. Naturally, it is in the Turkish language. Here is part of the email from The Angora Cat association informing me of this welcome development:
Do you remember you wrote a short article about ”The Real Turkish Angora”? The Angora Cat association has decided to publish it in one Turkish Cat’s magazine. We wrote a short explanation too. We would like to share a copy of the article which is in Turkish only, however the translation would be pretty much the same as it is in your website and some comments below.
We hope we can make some difference for Turkish cats as well for other moggies in the world. We plan many projects and support is very needed by people who share similar ideas and want to contribute and help for our research.
We are very grateful for your support.
Warm Regards,
P. Aksoy, The Angora Cat Association, Turkey
Here are thumbnails of scans of the four page magazine article. If you click on the image you are taken to a new page showing the full sized version.
Of course, I am honored and pleased. I am more pleased than honored because the article I wrote is important for me in recognizing that the Turkish Angora in Turkey is the true cat. All the selective cat breeding in the world by the cat fancy in America or elsewhere cannot improve on the original cat.
The story about the real Turkish Angora applies to all cat breeds. The current versions are sometimes – not always, please note – too far removed from the original cats when the cat breed is a development of a naturally occurring cat. I prefer the original cats because they are more natural and being more natural they are as God intended them to be and not what we want them to be. Natural selection is a better process for deciding on the appearance of a cat than selective breeding by us. That is my honest viewpoint.
Although my opinion is shared by the Angora Cat Association I respect the views of members of the cat fancy. I am simply convinced that breeders would do better, and be better appreciated, if they reverted a bit towards the original cats. Selective breeding (to excess sometimes) is the desire of cat breeders but is neither appreciated by most people nor the cat.
Let’s celebrate the real Turkish Angora and all real cats of whatever cat breed.
Here is the link to a slideshow of legitimate Turkish Angoras in the Ankara Zoo.,. They differ from the cats in the streets of Turkish towns only by colour in some cases. They are the naturally occurring cats of Turkey.
Many thanks Michael!
My pleasure.
Thank you. If these scans are too large, perhaps uploading some of these pictures from our article, could be a better idea and Google won’t have a problem with this. After all Turkish text makes little or no sense for most of your readers, so one page of article is enough.
Please let us if you need some help about it.
Kind Regards
Dear Michael,
Harvey is right the picture in the first scan of our article is NOT a real Turkish Angora, but breeder’s created breed. Adding this cat in the first page of article was a mistake of magazine’s editor and we we were not informed about this.
This picture obviously will confuse some people. I would kindly suggest publishing the whole article not only the first page. There are some good pictures that make clear which is the real Turkish Angora and which is not. Like Harvey said the type of the real Angora and that one propagated by cat breeders is completely different. Those differences are not due to selective breeding but a result of dishonest breeders who used various unknown cats in creating the Turkish Angora breed we see today in cat shows. The picture that shows pointed and chocolate ”Angoras” that came from this ”pure breeding” (no known outcrosses in pedigrees according to the breeders!) is very important.
We would be glad if you decide to publish the other parts of our article which was sent to you.
Thank you.
Kind Regards.
Sure, I will be pleased to do as you ask. In some ways it is a good thing because it emphasises the problem. I’ll add the extra photos later today. I didn’t do it first time because too many large pictures slow down page load times and Google does not like that.
I suggest that the wrong photo of “The Real Turkish Angora” be changed at least on Pictures of Cats. Detractors of the real Turkish Angora will gain undeserved credence from it. This is a step backwards. What on earth were they thinking of?
Harvey, do you mean the magazine picture on this page show a cat that is not a real Turkish Angora?