This is a picture Tim took while on a trip for the embassy to the Southeast, probably around 1997. I don’t recall all the details offhand, but I do remember him saying it was a difficult trip due to the uneasy times in that area.

Silopi is a district of Şırnak Province in Turkey’s Southeast region, close to the borders with Iraq and Syria. Conflict in the area has escalated since July 2015, when clashes between security forces and the Kurdish militant group PKK resulted in three deaths, claimed by the government to have been terrorists and civilians by a Kurdish political party. Since then, 34 people are reported to have been killed in Silopi.

Yılankale, posted earlier: