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The 2001 Turkish Van BAC Seminar was held at the Oliver Bird Hall, Solihull, on Sunday 6th May 2001. This year we were pleased to welcome several GCCF judges, including Mary Kalal, Keith & Barbara Scruton, Rosemary Gowdy, Jean Gamble, Linda Clark, Freda Matthias-Lord, Malcolm Brace, and John Hanson. As usual their comments and opinions were eagerly received, and the situation presented an excellent opportunity to consult them regarding the finer points of judging our Turkish cats. Following vetting-in of our presentation cats the afternoon started with a wonderful buffet lunch - many thanks to those who helped provide, serve, and of course clean up afterwards! This was to set us in good stead for the afternoon! At 2.00pm precisely, Nicky Goulter, Secretary for the Turkish Van BAC, called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone in attendance. After a brief introduction she presented an outline of the afternoon's agenda, the theme this year being a comparison of Turkish cats, and their influence on breeding programmes. The first event was a video presentation by Bulent Basaran, and although the commentary was in Turkish, Bulent translated the salient points for us so that we could fully appreciate the content of the programme. In the film we were shown cats native to Turkey of several varieties - in Europe we recognise certain breeds like the Turkish Van and Turkish Angora, however the Turkish people have a love for white cats of any breed and so the purity of the lines is not so distinct. We can still see the origins of our breeds, but let us not forget that true Turkish cats are white with a variety of different eye colours including green. The video also served to illustrate the differences between what we know as the Turkish Van cat and the Turkish Angora. This led nicely on to the next event in the seminar which was an examination and discussion of 10 examples of Turkish cats. This year we provided to our judges 10 cats, pictured here on
the right.
It was very pleasing to see such a variety of cats. The two Turkish Angoras were a delightful addition, and arguably stole the show, however it was also lovely to see a white Van Kedi as well as our Turkish Vans of course. At this point a tea (and cake) break was in order, during which a raffle was drawn, with proceeds going towards the welfare activities of the Turkish Van breed clubs. After tea, some discussion on eye colour followed, particularly with reference to the fading of the colour which often leads to a greenish tinge. This is quite common, and is an issue to be addressed in the near future. Perhaps the biggest discussion point was over the introduction of the white Van Kedi lines into the Turkish Van breeding policy. When a Van Kedi is mated to a Turkish Van there may be van-patterned offspring that are currently referred to as Turkish Type (see cats 5 & 10 above), since they cannot be registered as Turkish Vans. The intention is for second generation offspring from white cats to be registered as Turkish Vans, i.e. the offspring of two van-patterned cats, one or both of whose parents were white. Generally there was no objection to this, and it was agreed that the inclusion of these cats would be of great benefit to the breed. The seminar was called to a close at about 4:30pm, with our thanks to the judges and all who contributed. Thanks also to Nicky Goulter for arranging the seminar, coordinating the events, and stewarding the cats. |
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