There was little talk on January 1 about terror and violence; just the pretence of waking up to a hopeful beginning.

The New Year is here but already it felt old... in the most sinister way imaginable. The world has to face a year of reckoning on widespread terrorism.

Following the Berlin massacre and the deadly New Year’s Eve horrendous attack on a renowned nightclub in Istanbul, which left 39 people dead and others injured, another car bomb exploded in Izmir killing four people, including two terrorists.

The Izmir incident is the latest in a string of terror attacks that brought Turkey to its knees and is strongly damaging the country’s tourism sector. As recently as 2014, Turkey ranked as one of the world’s most popular tourism spots. But Turkey isn’t the only country to suffer the negative effects these terror attacks cause to tourism. France has also experienced a drop in visiting tourists following a spate of high-profile attacks.

The sources of the threat are too numerous to handle, the number of unknowns too great. A high-ranking official was quoted as saying that it was not inconceivable for the Turkish government to impose curfews in the coming months. The previous 12 months had brought to Turkey not only a grim sequence of bombings but also a bloody internal battle against Kurdish militants.

Shortly before Christmas, the assassination of the Russian ambassador at an Ankara art gallery added a grim final flourish to a macabre year for Turkey, a Nato member and vital partner to western states.

What will happen now to a country that has already experienced so many calamities? Turkey looks set to be defined by these anxieties, especially Istanbul, a gritty metropolis whose dwellers feel overwhelmed by darkness and violence.

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