The south-eastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir is preparing for war, converting underground shopping galleries into makeshift bunkers in case of a chemical attack by Iraq.
Located just 120 miles from the Iraqi border, the city is hypothetically within reach of an Iraqi Scud missile.
Officially, all has been done to cope with a possible chemical attack. On closer inspection, however, it is clear that the city's 500,000 inhabitants would be highly vulnerable to any attack.
A television screen tuned to the CNN Turk news channel showed footage of nearby war preparations, as Mr Mehdin Guler, deputy mayor of Diyarbakir, insisted that the city was in safe hands.
"We ordered the renovation of 67 bomb shelters to improve their protection against chemical agents. The work should be complete within seven to 10 days," said Mr Guler.
"What's more, I doubt that the Iraqis have missiles capable of reaching Diyarbakir. I think the embargo has stripped Iraq of weapons with that sort of reach," he added.
Running under the city's main shopping street, an underground commercial gallery has been converted into a bunker.
Lined with shops, the bunker is sealed off from the outside world and the toxins that could be released during an attack by a rusty metal curtain at one end, and a glass door at the other. There is no sign of any modernisation work.
At the university hospital, no particular steps have been taken to handle a possible influx of people wounded by conventional weapons or a chemical attack.
"I believe that our means will be enough to respond to any extraordinary situation," said the hospital director, Mr Bilsel Bac.
"We can draw on our experience over the past 15 to 20 years," he added, in a reference to the bloody 1984-1999 conflict that opposed Kurdish separatist rebels to the Turkish military.
"Honestly, I do not want a war in the region or in the rest of the world," said Mr Bac, who is trained as a doctor. "But if there was to be one, it would be very difficult in any case to treat a person intoxicated by gas." - (AFP)