Istanbul is one of my favourite cities

[mandragora]

and is somewhere I've visited several times, because I love it so much - the sights, the history, the people. I doubt that the family friends who live there and whose hospitality I've enjoyed are physically hurt. But their livelihood is likely to be affected by the recent bombings.

It sounds as if the British Consul-General is dead. If it was the Kurds I don't know what I'd be feeling right now. But I doubt very much that the Kurds would deliberately target British interests in Istanbul. It looks as though Al-Quaeda has struck again.

I mourn for Istanbul.