Anatolian Shepherd the transhumance, guarding flocks of sheep from wolves and cheetahs. It is probable that dogs of this type existed 6,000 years ago in what is now Turkey. Anatolian Shepherd Dogs are members of a very old breed, probably descended from powerful hunting dogs from Mesopotamia. This mountain dog breed was developed over time to meet a specific set of circumstances. The most formative were climate (very hot, dry summers and very cold winters), lifestyle (sedentary, semi-nomadic and nomadic) and duties (guarding flocks moving great distances on the Central Anatolian Plateau). In the 1970s, breeders in the West became interested in
General Congregation of the Anatolian Turkish Orthodox General Congregation of the Anatolian Turkish Orthodox The General Congregation of the Anatolian Turkish Orthodox (in Turkish "Umum Anadolu Türk Ortodoksları Cemaatleri") was a pro-Turkish nationalist Orthodox Christian group set up in 1922 and mainly active in the Turkish-speaking, Orthodox Christian Karamanlides population of central Anatolia. Unlike most Greek Orthodox Christians, they identified themselves as Turkish rather than Greek and supported Kemal Ataturk. At the time, it had support from the Orthodox Bishop of Havza, as well as numerous other congregations. There were calls to establish a new Patriarchate for Turkish-speaking Christians with Turkish as the language of worship. In