The city of Antep is no stranger to horrors but there was something particularly vile about the mentality of those behind a child suicide bomber infiltrating a wedding party: of these atrocities I am lost for words.
Antep was given the title Gazi ('war hero') in the 1921 as a mark of respect with the way it had conducted itself through the French siege, during the War of Independence (when the Turkish army drove out the various Allied forces occupying Turkish land following the Ottoman defeat in the First World War).
I first went to Gaziantep in 1986, and spent most of my visit ill in my hotel room. This photograph recalls the few moments when I felt strong enough to go in search of inlaid furniture. I've been back since, most recently to see the brilliant museum at Zeugma, which is quite outstanding. Here are displayed the remarkable finds rescued from the the area flooded by the vast Ataturk dam.
