2007年VOA标准英语-Tens of Thousands of Turks Demonstrate for Secu

By Amberin Zaman
Istanbul
05 May 2007

Thousands of Turks held anti-government demonstrations¹ Saturday. The rallies in defense² of Turkey's secular³ system come ahead of a key vote in the Turkish parliament to elect a new president. As Amberin Zaman reports from Istanbul, the presidential election has evolved into a showdown between Turkey's pro-Islamic government and pro-secular forces in the opposition⁴ and in the military.

Demonstrators march during a pro-secular rally in Manisa, western Turkey, 05 May 2007

Waving Turkey's crimson⁵ national flag and chanting anti-government slogans, more than ten thousand demonstrators marched through the western city of Manisa on Saturday. Their message was the same as in a mass rally held last week in Istanbul: "Turkey is secular and must remain so." Further west in the city of Canakkale thousands more staged a similar protest.

Meryem Tuna is a middle-class homemaker from Istanbul who has taken part in anti-government demonstrations. Like others opposed to the government, she is worried that Turkey's pro-Islamic prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has nominated his foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, to replace the incumbent⁶ Ahmet Necdet Sezer as president when he steps down on May 16.

Tuna says the main problem with Gul is that his wife wears an Islamic style headscarf and will therefore project a backward image of Turkey, one that directly contradicts the kind of Turkey Ataturk envisioned when he encouraged Turkish women to abandon their veils and gave them the right to vote even before their peers in France and Switzerland.

For Turkey's main opposition parties, it is about more than just Turkey's image. They say if both the government and the presidency⁷ are controlled by Islamists, Turkey's secular system will be overturned. At the end of April, they boycotted⁸ a first round of voting in the parliament to elect a new president.

Gul, who is running unchallenged for president, suffered a further setback⁹ when the constitutional court upheld the opposition's claims that there were not enough deputies present at the session and it was therefore invalid¹⁰.

The court delivered its verdict only days after the military issued a statement on its Web site listing the risks posed by Islamic fundamentalism and threatened to intervene if need be. The move was sharply criticized by the European Union.

The E.U. is demanding that the military's powers be trimmed before Turkey is admitted as a full member of the 27 member bloc¹¹.

Onur Oymen is deputy chairman of the staunchly pro-secular main opposition Republican People's Party, which was founded by Ataturk. He disagrees that the military was in breach¹² of democratic principles when it delivered its ultimatum¹⁴ last week. "They expressed in a strong way maybe their opinions but they stated in their statement that everybody needs to observe the rules of the constitution - that was their message. The constitution and the basic principles of the constitution starting with secularism," he sad.

Oymen adds that he does not believe that the Turkish army, which has overthrown¹⁵ four governments since 1960, will seize power ever again.

The government will attempt for a second time on Sunday to elect Gul. Should it fail to do so, Erdogan has said he will hold nationwide general elections on July 22, well ahead of the originally scheduled date, November 4. He is also pushing for constitutional changes that would allow the Turkish people to elect a president themselves

Two center-right opposition parties - the True Path and Motherland - announced Saturday they are uniting as the Democrat¹³ Party in order to challenge the ruling party in July 22 elections.

1 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

2 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

3 secular   

n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的

参考例句：

• We live in an increasingly secular society.我们生活在一个日益非宗教的社会。
• Britain is a plural society in which the secular predominates.英国是个世俗主导的多元社会。

4 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。

5 crimson   

n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色

参考例句：

• She went crimson with embarrassment.她羞得满脸通红。
• Maple leaves have turned crimson.枫叶已经红了。

6 incumbent   

adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的

参考例句：

• He defeated the incumbent governor by a large plurality.他以压倒多数票击败了现任州长。
• It is incumbent upon you to warn them.你有责任警告他们。

7 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

8 boycotted   

抵制，拒绝参加( boycott的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Athletes from several countries boycotted the Olympic Games. 有好几国的运动员抵制奥林匹克运动会。
• The opposition party earlier boycotted the Diet agenda, demanding Miyaji's resignation. 反对党曾杯葛国会议程，要宫路下台。

9 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。

10 invalid   

n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的

参考例句：

• He will visit an invalid.他将要去看望一个病人。
• A passport that is out of date is invalid.护照过期是无效的。

11 bloc   

n.集团；联盟

参考例句：

• A solid bloc of union members support the decision.工会会员团结起来支持该决定。
• There have been growing tensions within the trading bloc.贸易同盟国的关系越来越紧张。

12 breach   

n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破

参考例句：

• We won't have any breach of discipline.我们不允许任何破坏纪律的现象。
• He was sued for breach of contract.他因不履行合同而被起诉。

13 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

14 ultimatum   

n.最后通牒

参考例句：

• This time the proposal was couched as an ultimatum.这一次该提议是以最后通牒的形式提出来的。
• The cabinet met today to discuss how to respond to the ultimatum.内阁今天开会商量如何应对这道最后通牒。

15 overthrown   

adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词

参考例句：

• The president was overthrown in a military coup. 总统在军事政变中被赶下台。
• He has overthrown the basic standards of morality. 他已摒弃了基本的道德标准。