A year ago, a Turkish man came to me. He had a gun in his pocket and a knife in his hand. I knew him because of my job as a psychologist for the city of Berlin. ''I am going to kill my wife,'' he said. ''It's for my children. I love them.''

He explained to me that his wife had cheated on him, moved to Turkey with another man and thus wounded his honour. ''You say that you love your children,'' I said. ''Do you really want them to grow up like orphans? With a dead mother and a father in jail?'' Thankfully, I was able to talk him round.