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last years . The many thousands of Syrian refugees had a significant impact at the beginning , but now the situation is professionally managed by the government and rather sustainable . According to Mustafa , the real problem is the precipitous drop-off in western tourists caused by fear of terrorist attacks or of Syrian warfare .
Urfa the Glorious , that ’ s the meaning of the city ’ s name , was established thousands of years ago ; it ’ s Ur in the Bible , Edessa for the Byzantines . The city gained the title of Glorious during the fight against French occupation a century ago , but the inhabitants prefer to stay humble . Although the centre is small enough to be visited by foot , here time has a relative meaning . You can wander for hours amongst the bazaars , finding yourself in the same place at the end , drunk with colours and voices .
Everything is sold in the bazaar , and we took the chance to stock some Diyarbakır tobacco and pistachios from Gaziantep . The owner of a weapons store offered me a Kalashnikov at a bargain-price in sympathy .
“ Italia ? Beretta number one !”, he
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