Turkey, the parallel society.

Cats were domesticated in Asia about 10,000 years ago, and have co-existed with humans ever since. We love cats, most people have a pet cat, and they have a multitude of uses, rodent control, emotional support, companionship. We all know of a cat lady in the neighborhood. Some ancient civilizations worshipped cats, like the ancient Egyptians.

Now we get to Turkey.

The Turkish city of Istanbul hosts a sizeable feral cat (Turkish: sokak kedisi, "street cat") population, with estimates ranging from a hundred thousand to over a million stray cats. Many Turkish citizens view street animals as communally owned pets rather than traditional strays, and the country has a blanket no-kill, no-capture policy. I saw this first hand when on a trip to Turkey. There were cats everywhere, and the general population was feeding them with water and food dishes outside almost every store front and house in the street, and just walking around I would see people stop what they were doing to groom a cat or administer medical attention. I asked some of them if the cat was theirs, and they said no, they were everyone’s cat, and they were just helping it because it needed help.

The wide prevalence of cats in the city can be connected back to Ottoman times. The vast majority of Istanbul's houses were made of wood, which gave shelter and enabled the proliferation of the mouse and rat populations. This made cats' presence a necessity in the city.Various media sources connected the positive attitude towards cats in Turkey to Islam the most prevalent faith in the country.

However, not everyone in Turkey subscribes to this behavior, veterinarians for instance say that it promotes diseases by sick cats which spread to house cats and also dogs who eat and drink the communal dishes on the street. There have even been cases of humans getting diseases from the sick cats.

Before 2021, the Turkish law defined animals (strays and pets) as "commodities", rather than "living beings". This classification was criticized by animal rights activists, as it led to perceived lenient penalties against animal cruelty. According to the proposition that was accepted in 2021, pets and stray animals were given "living being" status, which allows from six months up to four years jail sentences for crimes against animals. The law also mandates the sterilization of all stray animals in Turkey.

The Municipality of Istanbul has placed vending machines for cats and dogs in many parts of the city; there are many cats around these vending machines. Citizens passing by put coins into these machines, ensuring that cats and dogs are fed. cats can be seen in many places in Istanbul, whether in university classrooms, on ferries, buses, or subway trains, with no one bothering them. these cats aren’t merely wondrous creatures in themselves, but that they enrich the whole city - so state many Turkish people. Kedi, (Turkish for “cat”) also charts the ways humans care for felines, from making them snacks to bringing them to the vet. another instance of how “human culture” is in fact made up of our relationships with nonhumans. Globally, cats have accompanied humans since ancient times, beginning in Western Asia almost 10,000 years ago. Humans initially welcomed them in their nascent settlements for their ability to control rodents; today cats can be found anywhere there’s a human presence.

But what makes cats especially loved in Turkey, and what can we learn from this special relationship in one particular country?

NO ONE KNOWS for sure how cats became beloved in Turkey. The origin story of the significance of cats is, the stuff of cultural memory and legends rather than historical verifiability.

It’s clear, however, that religion played a role, particularly Islam, which the vast majority of the Turkish population—98 percent according to one recent survey—adheres to. While some Muslims have ambiguous attitudes toward keeping dogs as pets, cats are considered ritually clean and have been historically favored, dating to the Prophet Muhammad who is said to have loved cats.

In Istanbul today, there is a “cat-friendly imam” who welcomes felines to his mosque. It is something any Muslim should do, citing a Turkish saying that goes: “If you kill a cat, you must build a mosque.”

abilities to control rodents made them an “indispensable part” of households during the time of the Ottoman Empire. Written accounts from the 16th century report the existence of cat hospitals and gardens in and around Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), where locals fed and cared for large stray populations. Many of these traditions of “stewardship,” persist today, carried out by people of different religious affiliations, ethnicities, genders, classes, and ages.

One day I was walking past a restaurant, and the restaurant worker, or maybe the owner, was shooing away a street cat with a broom, and saw me watching him. He looked mortified that he had been observed doing that and seeing that I was an American, ( yes, it’s obvious), he started explaining that he wasn’t hurting the cat .

Just as important as these culturally specific factors, however, may well be qualities inherent to cats that drive people’s fascination with them. Cats seem to have a mind of their own, an inscrutability and imperviousness that make them at once fascinating and endearing.

, a science writer based at Oxford, suggests this has to do with how they co-evolved with humans: “Unlike dogs … which have been profoundly altered by breeding and the need to fit into human society, cats didn’t change that much compared with their wild ancestors and have kept their independent spirit

AS WITH ANY KIND of interspecies relationship, human-cat relations have not been without tensions. Among medieval Christians, cats were sometimes treated with suspicion because of their associations with paganism and witchcraft. In parts of Europe, people killed cats because of their supposed associations with the devil—leading to higher rat populations that likely encouraged the spread of the Black Death and other plagues in the Middle Ages.

Even in Turkey, historic examples show a distrust of cats, especially during disease outbreaks. During a cholera scare in the 1830s, a “general crusade” led to cats being “shot without mercy.” Almost 200 years later, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, some people abandoned their pets—including the otherwise-loved cats—due to fears that the animals could spread disease.

Elsewhere around the world, the overpopulation of feral cats is now seen as a major threat to wildlife. In Australia, the government has taken the controversial measure of culling millions of feral cats.

At least for now, the majority of Istanbul’s human residents seem unbothered by the over 100,000 cats in their city—though some see stray cats as out of step with their vision of Istanbul’s future as a “modern” city. And as animal rights advocates and cat lovers point out, some community cats live in miserable conditions. In an interview, Torun, the director of Kedi, acknowledged “the darker sides of cats’ lives in Istanbul, and the struggles that cat advocates or animal activists have” in caring for street animals

“A cat has absolute emotional honesty: Human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not,” Ernest Hemingway once wrote. If he is right, then I would like to think that the feelings I saw are are those of friendship.

, a science writer based at Oxford, suggests this has to do with how they co-evolved with humans: “Unlike dogs … which have been profoundly altered by breeding and the need to fit into human society, cats didn’t change that much compared with their wild ancestors and have kept their independent spirit

AS WITH ANY KIND of interspecies relationship, human-cat relations have not been without tensions. Among medieval Christians, cats were sometimes treated with suspicion because of their associations with paganism and witchcraft. In parts of Europe, people killed cats because of their supposed associations with the devil—leading to higher rat populations that likely encouraged the spread of the Black Death and other plagues in the Middle Ages.

Even in Turkey, historic examples show a distrust of cats, especially during disease outbreaks. During a cholera scare in the 1830s, a “general crusade” led to cats being “shot without mercy.” Almost 200 years later, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, some people abandoned their pets—including the otherwise-loved cats—due to fears that the animals could spread disease.

Elsewhere around the world, the overpopulation of feral cats is now seen as a major threat to wildlife. In Australia, the government has taken the controversial measure of culling millions of feral cats.

At least for now, the majority of Istanbul’s human residents seem unbothered by the over 100,000 cats in their city—though some see stray cats as out of step with their vision of Istanbul’s future as a “modern” city. And as animal rights advocates and cat lovers point out, some community cats live in miserable conditions. In an interview, Torun, the director of Kedi, acknowledged “the darker sides of cats’ lives in Istanbul, and the struggles that cat advocates or animal activists have” in caring for street animals.

Even in Turkey, historic examples show a distrust of cats, especially during disease outbreaks. During a cholera scare in the 1830s, a “general crusade” led to cats being “shot without mercy.” Almost 200 years later, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, some people abandoned their pets—including the otherwise-loved cats—due to fears that the animals could spread disease.

Elsewhere around the world, the overpopulation of feral cats is now seen as a major threat to wildlife. In Australia, the government has taken the controversial measure of culling millions of feral cats.

Elsewhere around the world, the overpopulation of feral cats is now seen as a major threat to wildlife. In Australia, the government has taken the controversial measure of culling millions of feral cats.

My history neediness got me distracted by some ancient Egypt history… sorry.

𓏇𓇋𓅱𓃠

Cat-headed deity Bastet

In ancient Egypt, cats were represented in social and religious scenes dating as early as 1980 BC. Several ancient Egyptian deities were depicted and sculptured with cat-like heads such as Mafdet, Bastet and Sekhmet, representing justice, fertility, and power, respectively.The deity Mut was also depicted as a cat and in the company of a cat.

Cats were praised for killing venomous snakes, rodents and birds that damaged crops, and protecting the Pharaoh since at least the First Dynasty of Egypt. Skeletal remains of cats were found among funerary goods dating to the 12th Dynasty. The protective function of cats is indicated in the Book of the Dead, where a cat represents Ra and the benefits of the sun for life on Earth. Cat-shaped decorations used during the New Kingdom of Egypt indicate that the domesticated cat became more popular in daily life. Cats were depicted in association with the name of Bastet.

Cats and religion began to be disassociated after Egypt became a Roman province in 30 BC.A series of decrees and edicts issued by Roman Emperors in the 4th and 5th centuries AD gradually curtailed the practice of paganism and pagan rituals in Egypt. Pagan temples were impounded and sacrifices prohibited by 380 AD. Three edicts issued between 391 and 392 prohibited pagan rituals and burial ceremonies at all cult sites. Death penalty for offenders was introduced in 395, and the destruction of pagan temples decreed in 399. By 415, the Christian church received all property that was formerly dedicated to paganism. Pagans were exiled by 423, and crosses replaced pagan symbols following a decree from 435.

Egypt has since experienced a decline in the veneration once held for cats. They were still respected in the 15th century, when mamluk warriors treated cats with honour and empathy.Gentle treatment of cats is part of Islamic tradition.

The domestic cat originated from Near-Eastern and Egyptian populations of the African wildcat, Felis lybica lybica. The family Felidae, to which all living feline species belong, is thought to have arisen about 12 to 13 million years ago and is divided into eight major phylogenetic lineages. The Felis lineage in particular is the lineage to which the domestic cat belongs.

Domesticated cats originated in near-eastern and Egyptian populations of F. s. lybica. In the near-east they gathered around human agricultural colonies themselves, while in Egypt (~1500 BC) they seem to have been mainly attractive because of behavioral traits. They started to spread during Neolithic times, but did not become widespread in the Old World until classical antiquity. A newer study from 2018 moved their earlier origin to Southwest Asia.

So that is how wild cats got domesticated, and how they became beloved in Turkey. And that is why there is a parallel society in Turkey, cats and humans. Now you know.