 A Turkish Van may have blue or amber eyes, or be odd-eyed (having one eye of each colour).The breed has been claimed to be descended from the landrace of usually all-white Van cats (), mostly found near Lake Van, though one of the two original breeders' own writings indicate clearly that none of the breed's foundation cats came from the Van area.Then called the Turkish Cat, the breed was first recognised as such by a breeder/fancier organisation, the UK-based Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF), in 1969.