土耳其和库尔德人

　　Hunger and thirst

　　饥饿和干渴

　　A hunger strike causes new tension between Turkey and its Kurds

　　绝食抗议引发土耳其和库尔德人间新的紧张局势

　　What happens if they start dying? The question weighs ever more heavily as hundreds of Kurds in prisons across Turkey continue the hunger strike they launched on September 12th. Human-rights activists are saying that many have reached “a critical threshold.”

　　如果他们开始死亡会怎么样？由于关押在土耳其各地监狱的数百名库尔德人自9月12日开始绝食抗议，现在仍在继续，这个问题变得愈加严峻。人权积极分子表示，其中很多人已经到了“生死边缘”。

　　The hunger strikers, surviving on sugar water and vitamins, vow to keep up their fast until the ruling Justice and Development (AK) party meets their demands for greater linguistic rights and better prison conditions for the leader of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, has responded with threats to reintroduce capital punishment, to which Mr Ocalan was sentenced after his capture in 1999 (and which AK abolished when it took office in 2002, in line with European Union demands.)

　　靠着糖水和维生素维持生命的绝食抗议者们发誓要继续绝食，直到执政的正义与发展党满足他们的要求，为分裂势力库尔德工人党领导人阿卜杜拉·奥贾兰提供更大的话语权和更好的监狱环境。而土耳其总理雷杰普·塔伊普·埃尔多安则以威胁重新启用死刑作为回应——奥贾兰在1999年被捕后被判处死刑（为了符合欧盟的要求，正义与发展党于2002年上台后废除了死刑）。

　　Mr Erdogan has ridiculed the strikers, growling “let them continue” at a recent AK meeting. When five MPs from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) said they would join in, a breezy prime minister noted “some of them are in serious need of dieting.” Yet the government has conceded one demand with a new bill to allow Kurds to use their mother tongue in court. The EU’s ambassador in Ankara, Jean-Maurice Ripert, said this could “create the space for political dialogue.”

　　埃尔多安在最近一次正义与发展党的会议上嘲笑绝食抗议者，怒吼道“让他们继续”。来自亲库尔德的和平民主党的五名议员表示将加入绝食抗议后，埃尔多安仍旧安然自若，称“这有些人很需要节食”。但是政府已就库尔德人的要求做出让步，一项新法案将允许库尔德人在法庭上使用母语。欧盟驻土耳其代表让-莫里斯·里佩尔表示，这能“为政治对话创造空间”。

　　The Kurds are unlikely to stop their hunger strike until Mr Ocalan is granted access to his lawyers as they demand. Mr Ocalan’s status is shrouded in mystery. He has not met the lawyers for 15 months. The government claims this is because the ferry that carries them to his island prison south of Istanbul has broken down. Nobody believes this, not least because Mr Ocalan’s younger brother visited him in September. He returned saying the PKK leader was unkempt and was upset by the escalation in PKK violence that prompted Mr Erdogan to scupper secret peace talks.

　　但库尔德人很可能会继续绝食抗议，直到他们能够让奥贾兰能见到律师。奥贾兰的状况罕有人知晓。他已经15个月未和律师见面。政府声称这是由于轮船故障使得律师无法前往奥贾兰在押的伊斯坦布尔南面的岛上监狱。不过没人相信这种说法，因为奥贾兰的弟弟九月还看望过他。他回来后说，这位库尔德工人党的领袖衣容不整，而且因库尔德工人党的暴力活动愈演愈烈导致埃尔多安中止秘密和谈而情绪低落。

　　Yet the younger Mr Ocalan shed no light on whether it was his brother who is shunning the lawyers or the government that is blocking their visits. Proponents of the first theory speculate that Mr Ocalan will not see the lawyers (or ask the PKK to end its violence) unless the government moves him from solitary confinement to house arrest. Backers of the second idea think the government wanted to break the links between Mr Ocalan and his fighters (the lawyers carried messages) in hopes of triggering a leadership struggle that would fracture the PKK.

　　但奥贾兰的弟弟并未说明究竟是奥贾兰在回避律师，还是政府不允许他见律师。持前一种观点的人猜测，政府只有把奥贾兰从单独监禁转为软禁，奥贾兰才会和律师见面（或呼吁工人党停止暴力活动）。后一种观点的支持者则认为政府是想割裂奥贾兰和库尔德工人党之间的联系（因为律师可以传递消息），以期在党内引发领导权争夺，从而导致党派分裂。

　　If so, the strategy has failed. Mr Ocalan’s grip may be weaker but he continues to be revered by millions of Kurds. Giant images of the mustachioed PKK leader can be seen throughout Kurdish towns in neighbouring Syria, where an affiliate called the PYD seized control after the withdrawal of President Bashar Assad’s troops. Turkey has been lobbying America for a no-fly zone over northern Syria in hopes of squashing the PKK’s expanding influence. Wary of wading into further Middle Eastern misadventures the Americans have said no. But in a show of support NATO is expected, at Turkey’s request, to deploy Patriot missiles in the province of Kilis, which borders Syria.

　　如果真如后一种观点所想，那土耳其政府的这一招已经失败了。奥贾兰对库尔德工人党的掌控可能有所削弱，但他仍然为广大库尔德人所崇敬。在邻国叙利亚，库尔德人聚居的城镇在阿萨德总统的军队撤出后由隶属于库尔德工人党的民主联盟党接管，在那里，这位蓄八字胡的库尔德工人党领袖的大幅肖像随处可见。土耳其一直劝说美国在叙利亚北部设立禁飞区，以图遏制库尔德工人党日益扩大的影响力。而唯恐在中东的泥潭里越陷越深的美国人没有同意。但为了表示支持，在土耳其的要求下，北约将在与叙利亚交界的土耳其基利斯省部署爱国者导弹。

　　The Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, says the missiles would defend Turkey against a possible chemical-weapon attack. Western diplomats suggest that, contrary to reports in the Turkish press, the Patriots could not create a no-fly zone for Syrian rebels and refugees, but are “mostly about making the Turks feel loved.” Turkish tanks remain on hills facing a PYD-held town this week after PKK sympathisers fired shots into the air during a funeral last month. If the stand-off with hunger strikers persists, more funerals will follow.

　　土耳其总统阿卜杜拉·居尔表示，北约部署的爱国者导弹可使土耳其免遭化学武器的打击。而西方国家的外交官们所持看法与土耳其媒体的报道相左，他们认为，爱国者导弹并不能为叙利亚叛军和难民创造禁飞区，而“主要是让土耳其人感受到关爱”。上月，在民主联盟党控制的城镇上举行了一场葬礼，库尔德工人党的支持者们在葬礼上向天鸣枪，此后一直到本周，土耳其的坦克部队就一直部署在那座城镇对面的山丘上。如果土耳其政府与绝食抗议者继续僵持下去，更多葬礼将接踵而至。