Gli ( 2004 – 7 November 2020) was a cat from

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

best known for living in the

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia (; ; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque (; ), is a mosque and former Church (building), church serving as a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively ...

, for which she became an Internet celebrity, grabbing the attention of visiting tourists. Gli was born in 2004 and was raised at the Hagia Sophia. She gained significant media attention when the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque in 2020. Gli died on 7 November 2020 at a veterinary clinic in Levent, Istanbul. It was announced that she would be buried on the premises of the Hagia Sophia. The

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account @hagiasophiacat was dedicated to Gli and was followed by more than 118,000 people at the time of her death.

Life

Gli was born at

in 2004. A kitten of Sofya, she had two siblings, Pati and Kızım. Gli had only one offspring, a jet-black cat aptly named Karakız ("Black Girl"). Gli was loved by the tourists who visited Hagia Sophia, which was a museum at the time, and she became a symbol of the Hagia Sophia. Gli first became popular when

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

visited Hagia Sophia in 2009; he and

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

petted Gli. After it was announced that the Hagia Sophia would be converted into a mosque, Gli was posted all over social media and mentioned often in the news, receiving a new wave of fame. Presidential spokesman İbrahim Kalın stated: "That cat has become very famous, and there are others who haven't become that famous yet. That cat will be there, and all cats are welcome to our mosques." Gli died in 2020 at a veterinary clinic in Levent, where she had been receiving treatment since 24 September. She was buried in the garden of the Hagia Sophia.

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* {{Instagram, hagiasophiacat 2004 animal births 2020 animal deaths Individual cats in Turkey Cats in popular culture Culture in Istanbul Turkish Internet celebrities Burials at Hagia Sophia

Life

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Further reading

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