Pergrouhi

Arpa, Adjarian simply is saying no one really knows and that there are more than one ենթադրութիւններ.

 

He himself says that it is quite surprising how this word travelled through so many cultures and peoples.

 

 

as for the links for previous discussions of Van cats, it is too bad that I missed all that, because I find Bellthecat's facts are not quite right, they are misleading at best. A true Van cat MUST have the Auburn markings and only a few amongst them have odd eyed colours. The markings have to be redish auburn head markings and a tail in similar colour while the body mainly white but can have auburn spots here and there. They are the cousins of the Angora cats but shorter hair, there are the odd all-white Vans but they are the exception rather than the rule. These are not man-made breed such as the Siamese and many other breeds, these are naturally selected cats bread by nature only, Armenians did not breed these cats, they were there for thousands of years, that's what make these cats so special, and being a natural breed, they come with all the quarkiness. It is true that Armenians valued these cats and gave gifts to Russian aristocrats. Apparently there is a 19th century painting of the Duchess of Crimea sititng on a chair with a Van cat on her lap.

Not those so-called "Turkish Vans" you find in America.

 

http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cat1.jpg

 

http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cat2.jpg

Since May the first this year the solid white Turkish Van can be shown in championship in TICA.

A breed article you can download in pdf from: http://www.turkishvancat.org/