Scenes of death and gore have become all the too common in Turkey and the devastating bombing of the Kurdish wedding in Gaziantep that killed more than 50 people was one of its deadliest yet. The most devastating attack was last October, when IS suicide bombers killed more than 100 people at a rally of pro-Kurdish and labor activists in Ankara. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the Islamic State, though they have not claimed responsibility for it. A suicide bomber aged between 12 and 14 carried out the attack, which means in the self-proclaimed Islamic Caliphate there is simply no sanctity allowed to childhood, and child militants are being recruited by the thousands according to recent reports.

At one funeral, anti-government protests erupted where the aggrieved threw plastic bottles and chanted “Murderer Erdogan!” Many in Turkey feel the government has not done enough to protect its citizens from the Islamic State. While others have criticised Turkey’s contribution to the Syrian war, allowing extremist rebels to cross its territory on their way to fight in Syria, to further its goal of toppling the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad. At the beginning of the war in 2011, Mr. Erdogan was sure that Assad would descend from power quickly, but the Russian military support that he enjoys now has proven otherwise. As the war waged on, Turkey increasingly found itself drawn in, with millions of refugees fleeing across the border and the last year has seen a series of deadly attacks within Turkey. A place so well known and loved for its culture, history and hospitality has now turned into a depiction of bloodshed and violence.

Turkey finds itself facing three enemies; Bashar al-Assad, the Islamic State and Kurdish rebels, and there is little it can do in the face of this looming threat. The attack on Saturday in Gaziantep is proof that while Syria bleeds profusely, the spillover into Turkey is very real and seems to be largely uncontainable.