ONUR KANLI NEWSLETTER

Dear friends,

My name is Onur Kanli. I am the chairman of the Turkish Shepherds’ Dogs Protection Society in Turkey and Turkish Kennel Club representative of the Turkish dogs. Our club is very new and we started registering all the dog breeds living in Turkey. We are in contact with the FCI. So far we have had 2 shows under FCI judges. We don’t recognize a breed called Anatolian. Such a breed never existed in our country. This is what we told FCI. Kangal and Akbash dogs are judged under different categories during our shows.

What is an Anatolian? Mixture of our dogs. Kangal, Akbash, Kars dog, Yoruk and Turkish Mastiff. Even some mongrels. First dog taken to England were Kangals but taken from Konya region. I personally met the lady who imported the first Turkish dogs to England. At that time there were no breed awareness in our country. I am talking about 40 years back. Finding a name to register them was necessary. At that time general name as Shepherd’s Dog(Coban Kopegi) was told to the lady. Finding a name was very simple then. They came from Anatolia and they were shepherds’ dogs. Anatolian Shepherd dog was a perfect name. In practice it is not only the name that we object. This makes the discussion very simple. Then some other people introduced tri-color, mixed dogs to England and managed to register them under the same name. In England there are two clubs now. ASDC and AKDC. AKDC has Kangals and ASDC have mixtures. But since The English K.C. registers only Anatolians as it has always been all the dogs are shown under this name. AKDC is working very hard to change the name to Kangal. We attended a meeting together with their secretary at the English Kennel Club. The meeting was very successful for us. E.K.C. is going to attend to our next show in May. I am sure that one day Kangal will be recognized by every authority in the world. As the Turkish Kennel Club we are making our moves slowly but surely. In such a big country no one should expect to have only one breed of dog. By the help of scientific studies we hope that we will introduce all our dogs to the world.

I agree that only color does not make a breed. In our standards Kangal is in the shades of fawn with black mask and ears. I have seen pictures of mixed dogs or other breed of dogs shown as Kangals here. These are just ideas without a proof and they don’t help to the recognition of Kangal Dog worldwide. Best wishes.

Onur Kanli, Turkey”