A woman visits St Savior in Chora church, known as Kariye in Turkish, in Istanbul, Friday, August 21, 2020. Turkey on Friday formally converted former Byzantine church, St Savior in Chora, into a mosque, a month after it similarly turned Istanbul's landmark Hagia Sophia into a Muslim house of prayer, drawing international rebuke. (Photo by Emrah Gurel/AP Photo)

Shironeko, also known as “Basket Cat”, is a Turkish van cat called “Shiro”, which is best known for his extremely relaxed demeanor and ability to balance things on his head, similar to Oolong the Pancake Bunny. The cat has been given several nicknames by its fans, most notably “Basket Cat” and “Zen Cat.”

A girl eats a watermelon slice while at a school building where Syrians – displaced from the area of Ras al-Ain by the Turkish offensive on the northeast – are staying in the city of Hasakah, on June 30, 2020. (Photo by Delil Souleiman/AFP Photo)

Miniature food cook Burcu Celenoglu Aydin prepares a dish at her mini kitchen in Istanbul, Turkey April 7, 2018. Social marketing coordinator Burcu Celenoglu Aydin and her husband videographer Anil Aydin cook renowned dishes of Turkish cuisine in tiny measures and upload the videos on social media. (Photo by Murad Sezer/Reuters)

An aerial view of lambs as General Directorate of Agricultural Enterprises of Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry expects lamb births to increase in winter period, compared to previous years, in Karacabey facilities of Bursa, Turkiye on September 16, 2024. (Photo by Mustafa Yilmaz/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Created from nearly 4,000 pieces of metal scraps, Aslan (Turkish for Lion), is a recent sculpture by Istanbul-based artist Selçuk Yilmaz. The piece took nearly a year of work and involved hand-cutting and hammering of each individual metal piece

A woman looks at the honour guard soldiers marching at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin wall, in downtown Moscow, on June 28, 2021. (Photo by Alexander Nemenov/AFP Photo)