Imagine that war is your only reality. You were born to this hell. You played with the background noise of jets flying above you. You learned how to escape from bombs instead of how to make your own volcano. Imagine that for you red is the color of blood, not roses. Green is the color of the uniforms of soldiers, not grass. And white is the colour of shroud, not doves.

I know that it is hard for you to imagine this, but it is the reality of many children in Syria right now. The tragedy in Syria may be the most topical, but it is certainly not the only one. Wars have always been a part of people's lives throughout history. Nevertheless, until the 20th century we haven't witnessed the tragedies of people but, instead, heard the glories of leaders. Then came photography which changed the whole view on wars. It captured wounded soldiers, destroyed houses, exploded bombs and scared children. And it left behind these eight iconic photos in the memory of children of war.

Child soldiers of the Battle of Gallipoli (WW1), 1915.

For those who don't know, Battle of Gallipoli was a campaign of World War I that took place in the Ottoman Empire (modern Turkey). In Turkey, it is regarded as a defining moment in the nation's history, perhaps the last great victory of the Ottoman Empire. Victory required sacrifices of every member of the nation, including children. And those children on the photo who were aged 15 to 16 also took part in the battle. If you could hold a gun, you were old enough to fight in the war. Their bravery was eternalized with a song ("Hey 15'li") but their youth was stolen.(TRT Haber, 2013)

Eileen Dunne, 1940 (World War II).

In World War II the distinction between civilian and military life was erased and over 50 million people died as a result, making it the most deadliest war in human history. Thousands of Jewish children died in the Nazi concentration camps and nearly as many died as a result of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This one, taken by Cecil Beaton, is one of the most famous photos depicting children in WW II. It shows 3-year-old air raid victim, Eileen Dunne, who was hospitalized following Germany's bombing of London. The horror in her eyes tells it all. The photo was featured on the cover of Life magazine and was used to illustrate the huge impact of this war on children.(Ronk, 2014)

Biafra War, 1969.

Today, many people probably have never even heard of the Biafra War. (To be honest, I hadn't either until recently.) The war was incited when the people in the Biafra region declared their independence from Nigeria. Nigeria refused this secession and implemented a blockade of food and supplies to the Biafra region. Approximately three million civilians, many of them children, died from fighting and starvation. This photo, taken by Don McCullin, brought the world's attention to the huge suffering the Biafra War was causing children. The starving boy with stick-thin limbs doesn't even have the energy to stand straight. Don McCullin used this photo to bring attention to the Biafra War. Photographs like this made Biafra the world's first media famine.(Time100Photos)

Kim Phúc, Vietnam War, 1972

This photograph, which is often called "The Napalm Girl," is one of the most famous war photographs of all time. Nick Ut, the photographer, won the World Press Photo of the World in 1972. It shows 9-year-old Kim Phúc, and other children, running down a road after a South Vietnamese napalm attack on their village. She is naked and screaming because the napalm had burned her clothes and body. This photo was so powerful that it initiated anti-war protests all over the world. People started protesting outside the White House in Washington DC every day. “Napalm Girl" was everywhere. She became the symbol of suffering children in wars.(Time100Photos)

Sharbat Gula, 1985

This is the portrait of 12-year-old Sharbat Gula, a Pashtun orphan who was living in the Nasir Bagh refugee camp on the Afghan-Pakistan border during the time of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Gula's parents were killed during the Soviet Union's bombing of Afghanistan when she was around 6-years-old. Along with her grandmother, brother and three sisters, she walked across the mountains to Pakistan and ended up in the Nasir Bagh in 1984. Her photo was taken by Steven McCurry. The picture was featured on the cover of National Geographic and received a huge amount of attention with Sharbat being called “the Afghan Mona Lisa" for her mysterious beauty and extraordinary green eyes. McCurry says that people volunteered to work in the refugee camps because of that photograph.(Simons, 2016)

Faris Odeh, Palestine, 2000

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict, which began in the mid 1900s, has been called the world's “most intractable conflict". This photo shows Faris Odeh standing alone in front of a tank, with a stone in his hand and arm bent back to throw it. Like many children born to this war, Faris tried to sooth his anger by throwing rocks. It was the only way to fight back to the injustices of the world. The photo perfectly portrays the imbalances of power between two sides of the war. Ten days after this photo was taken, Odeh was again throwing stones at Karni, crossing in the Gaza Strip, when he was shot in the neck by Israeli forces. He was just 14. According to United Press International (UPI), tens of thousands of people attended Odeh's funeral. He became a hero and his iconic image a symbol of Palestinian resistance against Israeli occupation.(Wikipedia)

Alan Kurdi, Bodrum, 2015

The Syrian civil war began in 2011 when Syrians demonstrated peacefully against their government but their ruler, Bashar Assad, responded with torture and bombing. Since then the conflict never stopped, in fact augmented after the involvement of ISIS. This photo, taken in 2015, shows Alan Kurdi from Syria, who was only 3-years-old. He drowned while escaping the civil war in Syria with his family and his dead body hit a beach in Turkey. The photo instantly took over social media and spread to the world. There have been many horrifying photos of the Syrian War and migrant crises following it. But this was different. The picture didn't show any traces of war, as we know. He looked just like the children we see every day in our neighborhoods. He looked so peaceful lying on the beach that it was disturbing. The photo not only moved people but also world leaders who started to rethink their immigration policies and stances on war.(Time100photos)

Omraan Daqneesh, Aleppo, 2016

Yet another child victim of the horrific war in Syria -- Omraan Daqneesh. Daqneesh was injured last week in an alleged Russian Air Force strike on the rebel-held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria. He was rescued with his parents and three siblings. One of them, Ali, recently lost his life at the age of 10. The footage of Omraan, stunned and baffled, touching his wounded head and wiping the blood of his hands quickly became a phenomenon in international media. After the image of Alan Kurdi, once again it caused international outrage and drew attention to the ongoing war in Syria. And this photo went down in history as another iconic image of children in wars.(Kennedy, 2016)

Photographs turn numbers into stories and stories mobilize us to take action, but even that is not enough to stop the war. Unfortunately, war only stops when some grown-ups want it to stop -- not when many children suffer to death.