美国国家公共电台 NPR As Syrian Government Forces Advance, The War Could Be At A Turning Point

As Syrian Government Forces Advance, The War Could Be At A Turning Point 

DAVID GREENE, HOST: 

We're going to hear from inside Syria now. This country appears to be at a turning point in its almost six-year civil war. Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have advanced deep into a rebel stronghold in the city of Aleppo, and it appears the government could retake the city. NPR's Alice Fordham is one of few Western journalists allowed into Syria, and she's been traveling there for the past week. She joins us now from the coastal¹ city of Tartus. Hi, Alice.

ALICE FORDHAM, BYLINE²: Hello.

GREENE: So I gather this coastal city is really the heartland of support for the government and President Assad. Is that right?

FORDHAM: Exactly, yeah. And there hasn't been a lot of fighting here, so the city itself seems kind of OK. But once you start talking to people, you realize that nearly every family here has someone - at least one person - in the Syrian army. And more men from Tartus have been killed fighting for Asaad per capita than anywhere else in the country. It's customary here to have a poster made to commemorate³ someone's death, and the city is plastered with these posters, layer on layer in some places, built up over the nearly six years of the civil war.

GREENE: Fascinating because we hear so much about places held by rebels and the sacrifices and death there. It's a reminder⁴ the people close to the government, I mean, fighting for the government have been sacrificing as well. I mean, where else have you gone in the country?

FORDHAM: Well, speaking to places that were held by rebels, I was able to get to Homs, where some of the soldiers from Tartus surely died. Homs is affected⁵ in a very different way. Much of central Homs was at one time held by rebel forces. And as a result of the battle there, the infrastructure⁶ has been massively damaged. Sixty percent of the city is uninhabitable now. We know that many civilians⁷ lived in the opposition⁸-held areas of Homs and were killed by the security forces. That figures when you see the wreckage⁹ of the city there.

GREENE: And what about the capital, Damascus, where I know you've also spent some time?

FORDHAM: Right. Well, I often used to visit as a tourist before the war, and I've been able to get there occasionally but haven't been back in five years. And we know, of course, that there are still sieges and battles on the edge of the city, but the center is remarkably¹⁰ physically¹¹ untouched. And although information is tightly controlled, that goes for everywhere. We always need permission for everything and to be accompanied by someone approved by the Information Ministry¹². I was able to take the temperature a little bit, and I can play you some of the voices from there.

Here in central Damascus, it's perfectly¹³ clear that Assad is still in control. In the souks of the beautiful, old city, his face looks out of almost every shop window, pinned up next to gold jewelry¹⁴ or intricate rugs. And no one has a bad word to say about him. I meet with Basam Abu Abdullah, a professor of international relations and adviser¹⁵ to the Information Ministry, and ask him about the mood here.

BASSAM ABU ABDULLAH: The mood in Damascus now is better, and it's very good. So Aleppo is a very important and strategic turning point in Syria and for the world.

FORDHAM: Regime supporters say eastern Aleppo is held by terrorists who have kept innocent people hostage there. People inside the opposition-held area, aid workers and the UN say there are maybe 200,000 civilians there suffering under assault by the Syrian armed forces and their allies. Hospitals, schools, apartment blocks have been leveled. An intermittent¹⁶ siege has left people hungry and cold. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. But for Abu Abdullah, the gunmen are terrorists. And if the regime crushes them, that will be a turning point in the almost six-years civil war.

ABDULLAH: I think it's beginning of the end, I think, because most of the parties are tired, and the winner is very clearly that there is no way for these terrorists.

FORDHAM: And Abu Abdullah sees another reason for Assad supporters to be cheerful.

ABDULLAH: The other important things now are the elections of the United States.

FORDHAM: He was surprised and relieved to see Donald Trump¹⁷ win.

ABDULLAH: I felt that it's good for Syria. This is first my feeling.

FORDHAM: He had feared Hillary Clinton would strengthen the Syrian opposition, and he hopes Trump, by contrast, will back Assad. Later, I sit with the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Alwatan, Waddah Abed Rabbu. He does call for slow government reforms, but he's also on good terms with government officials. He, too, was relieved to see Trump win.

WADDAH ABED RABBU: In Damascus, like all over the world, it was a surprise, but a good one this time, I mean.

FORDHAM: I ask about the Obama administration, which maintained that Assad had lost legitimacy¹⁸ because his forces killed so many civilians and that he could not be a cohesive¹⁹ force in Syria. Abed Rabbu says Western powers were just wrong about that.

RABBU: They only want to see the president is unpopular. He's a bad guy. He has to go. He has to leave. But this was not true.

FORDHAM: He concedes that Assad may not be popular with everyone but says he has more than 50-percent approval and that he's the only person who can unify²⁰ Syria. In those markets at the old city, at first, things seem OK. They're bustling²¹ and busy till long after dark. One shopkeeper tells me his takings are up 70 percent, year on year. Another shopkeeper named Ali Dera plays backgammon and says he feels safe now.

ALI DERA: (Foreign language spoken).

FORDHAM: "There are crowds out on the street," he says. "The security has improved. The news from Aleppo is pleasing," he adds.

DERA: (Foreign language spoken).

FORDHAM: But even here, there are constant signs of the ravages²² of the war which is playing out across the country. The power is out a lot. Food prices have tripled or more since the war began. And as shoppers wander, homeless children run up and beg, a reminder that half of Syrians no longer live in their homes.

GREENE: OK, Alice is still on the line with us. And, Alice, just thinking about the future of this country, half of Syrians out of their homes, many of them outside Syria now. Do you get a sense - will the Assad regime let them come back to their home safely?

FORDHAM: Well, Assad likes to emphasize that all Syrians should feel welcome to come back to their country. And officials say the only people being arrested as they come out of the rebel-held part of Aleppo are terrorists, that people who were not terrorists that just lived in opposition-held areas are welcome to resume life as normal Syrian citizens. But we know the opposition has seen a lot of broken promises in the past, and they'll be watching very closely to see how these people from opposition areas are treated as Assad's forces move into them.

GREENE: OK, speaking to our colleague, NPR's Alice Fordham, who's been traveling around Syria, talking to us now from the Syrian city of Tartus. Alice, thanks.

FORDHAM: Thanks for having me.

1 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 commemorate   

vt.纪念，庆祝

参考例句：

• This building was built to commemorate the Fire of London.这栋大楼是为纪念“伦敦大火”而兴建的。
• We commemorate the founding of our nation with a public holiday.我们放假一日以庆祝国庆。

4 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

5 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

6 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

7 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

8 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

9 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

10 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

11 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

12 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

13 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

14 jewelry   

n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝

参考例句：

• The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
• Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。

15 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

16 intermittent   

adj.间歇的，断断续续的

参考例句：

• Did you hear the intermittent sound outside?你听见外面时断时续的声音了吗？
• In the daytime intermittent rains freshened all the earth.白天里，时断时续地下着雨，使整个大地都生气勃勃了。

17 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

18 legitimacy   

n.合法，正当

参考例句：

• The newspaper was directly challenging the government's legitimacy.报纸直接质疑政府的合法性。
• Managing from the top down,we operate with full legitimacy.我们进行由上而下的管理有充分的合法性。

19 cohesive   

adj.有粘着力的；有结合力的；凝聚性的

参考例句：

• She sealed the parcel with cohesive tape.她用粘胶带把包裹封起来。
• The author skillfully fuses these fragments into a cohesive whole.作者将这些片断巧妙地结合成一个连贯的整体。

20 unify   

vt.使联合，统一；使相同，使一致

参考例句：

• How can we unify such scattered islands into a nation?我们怎么才能把如此分散的岛屿统一成一个国家呢？
• It is difficult to imagine how the North and South could ever agree on a formula to unify the divided peninsula.很难想象南北双方在统一半岛的方案上究竟怎样才能达成一致。

21 bustling   

adj.喧闹的

参考例句：

• The market was bustling with life. 市场上生机勃勃。
• This district is getting more and more prosperous and bustling. 这一带越来越繁华了。

22 ravages   

劫掠后的残迹，破坏的结果，毁坏后的残迹

参考例句：

• the ravages of war 战争造成的灾难
• It is hard for anyone to escape from the ravages of time. 任何人都很难逃避时间的摧残。