Click to view full size

Af­ter bombs ex­plod­ed near her home in the east­ern Iran­ian city of Golestan, hair­dress­er Merve Pourkaz de­cid­ed to leave.

Pourkaz, 32, said she trav­eled near­ly 1,500 kilo­me­ters (932 miles) to an alpine bor­der cross­ing in the hopes of reach­ing the safe­ty of the near­by Turk­ish city of Van.

“If they let me, I will stay in Van un­til the war ends,” she told The As­so­ci­at­ed Press re­cent­ly while wait­ing at the cross­ing. “If the war doesn’t end, maybe I’ll go back and die.”