Boxes of memories of a trip to the middle east

Transiting through the emptiness of the fullness of a thousand stories. Mardin, colour and smell of lime and sand. It smells of salt, desert, and tranquillity. The city of Mardin is in Southern Turkey, on the border with Syria and Iraq. Located in a strategic point in the Middle East, it is a place of “no conflict” and passivity. A place in which different cultures, religions, languages and identities converge – all living surrounded by the beauty of Mesopotamia – living and connecting in a harmonious way – Muslims, Jews, Christians, Orthodox, Kurds, Turks, Arabs – all living in a city with more than 4000 years of history.

Mardin is a city with the most mysteries of southern Turkey, with a story starting before 3000 BC, and with an absolute wealth of architecture and precious objects. It is a city of ancient Mesopotamia. At the same time, it is at the centre of the domestic conflict between Kurdish and Turkish military, and as a city that borders Syria and Iraq, it is touched by the war in Syria.

Given this duality, the locals live in the midst of a deep historical memory and the current political and social instability of the country. When I walked through the city, there was no terror or fear in the streets; people were living as if there was no war in the neighbouring country and a soft dictatorship on their own. It may be that the walls of history take care of the citizens of Mardin. It may be that the mysticism of Mesopotamia and the desert creates a kind of spatial protection that prevents the invasion of destructive and aggressive thinking.