Living like sultans: Istanbul's pampered street cats

Istanbul: Kanyon is getting fat: since someone stole his basket, this white cat with grey markings who lives at an Istanbul shopping centre has been showered with snacks, love and affection.

News of his plight brought out countless well-wishers, who have handed him endless supplies of food, toys, a comfortable cat house -- and his very own Instagram page run by a fan.

Kanyon, a stray cat, sleeps in his basket at the entrance of an Istanbul shopping mall, in Istanbul on January 23, 2026. (Photo by Yasin AKGUL / AFP)

He's not alone: according to City Hall, Istanbul has more than 160,000 cats living on its streets who are regularly fed and fussed over by the city's 16 million residents. These street cats are looked after with devotion.

Whether on the Asian or European side of Istanbul -- or the ferries connecting them -- cats can be seen everywhere, snoozing on restaurant chairs, wandering through supermarkets or curled up in shop windows. And they are rarely, if ever, disturbed.

Kanyon, a stray cat that lives at the entrance of an Istanbul shopping mall, is stroked by a young girl as he lays in his basket, in Istanbul, on January 23, 2026. (Photo by Yasin AKGUL / AFP)

"Istanbulites love animals. Here, cats can walk into shops and curl up on the most expensive of fabrics. That's why they call it 'the city of cats'," explains Gaye Koselerden, 57, looking at Kanyon's toy-filled corner which looks like a child's bedroom.

From pre-Ottoman times

Like Kanyon, many strays have turned into much-loved neighbourhood mascots.

In Kadikoy, locals set up a bronze statue in 2016 to immortalise Tombili (Turkish for "chubby"), a pot-bellied feline whose characteristic pose -- lounging on benches with one paw draped over the edge -- spawned countless internet memes.

When Gli, the tabby mascot of Istanbul's sixth-century Hagia Sofia mosque, died, an obituary in the Turkish press recalled how she was stroked by US president Barack Obama when he visited in 2009.

At the neighbouring Topkapi Palace, for years the opulent residence of the Ottoman sultans, they have just restored a centuries-old cat flap.

Kanyon, a stray cat, sleeps in his basket at the entrance of an Istanbul shopping mall, in Istanbul on January 23, 2026. (Photo by Yasin AKGUL / AFP)

"Cats have always been here, no doubt because they are clean and close to humans," the site's director Ilhan Kocaman told AFP.