We have been dealing with blood and tears rather than mountains, valleys, seas and climate. And while the destiny of our region has been changing, our celebratory days have become days of mourning. 1, 3, 10, 12. These are not merely numbers. These are the ages of four of the nine civilians killed by terrorists in Gaziantep on the second day of the Eid al-Fitr religious holiday. These numbers do not indicate how many years those children lived; these numbers indicate how many years they could not live. What do you have to say to a mother crying while saying “They took my child from me”? How can you console the parents who bid farewell to their 13-year-old girl while she was lying in a coffin covered with a wedding dress? Ibn Khaldun said “Geography is destiny.” And yet blood and tears have been our destiny.