Syrians' shopping sprees bring Turkish delight

* username: rupertbu

Every Friday, tour buses pull up outside the Sanko Park shopping mall in Gaziantep, an industrial city near Turkey's southern border with Syria.

Its marble atria lack the warmth of the bazaars in the city's old centre, where women bargain over mounds of dark red chilli paste and garlands of dried vegetables. But these visitors are not looking for atmosphere.

They are Syrians coming from Aleppo - just a few hours drive over the border - to snap up electronic goods and shop in fashion chains, from Mango to Marks & Spencer, that are unavailable at home. They now make up about one in 20 of the mall's monthly 850,000 customers, spending an average of $120 a head and prompting the mall to open an office that will refund VAT on the spot.