VOA标准英语 Turkey Begins Dig for Missing Kurds

State prosecutors¹ in Turkey have ordered the excavation² of several sites around Turkey that they say may hold Kurdish victims of state death squads³ from the 1980s and 1990s, a step ahead in efforts to force the country's security establishment to come clean about past abuses. Local human rights groups accuse the security forces of being responsible for more than 1,500 disappearances⁵. There is growing hope that the missing will be found.

A search is taking place on land owned by a state oil company for the remains⁶ of people believed to be victims of a war waged by the Turkish state against the Kurdistan Workers party, the PKK.

For people living in the region they are simply known as the missing.
　
Turkish Kurdish women wave traditional headscarf celebration of Kurdish New Year in city of Diyarbakir, 21 March 2009

The region's main city of Diyarbakir is where many families of those who disappeared live.

Muhlise Adiguzel and her three children moved here from their village after her husband Vehdettin, an activist⁷ in Kurdish politics, disappeared one wintry night 15 years ago.

"Late one late night we were sitting with relatives then there was banging on the door, and shooting," she said. "Soldiers came in, blindfolded⁸ and tied my husband's hands and took him to another room. They then burned plastic on him. Then they took him away. My family petitioned the courts, but they said they have not seen him."

Muhlise says a man once did approach her from the state, offering her financial support for her family, if she agreed to be an informer. His advice was chilling: Your husband chose the wrong way, don't make the same mistake. She refused.

Instead she, like so many others looking for their loved ones, ended up at the Diyarbakir Human Rights Association.

When I visit, another family is waiting to hear if there is any news of their missing husband and father. Despite the office being bombed and numerous police raids and court cases against its members, the association has been at the forefront of searching for the missing for the last 15 years. At present it has 275 open cases. But as its head Mumharem Erbey explains, their search continues to grow.

"As far as we know there are 1,500 people missing, but there can be far more. Many people were too frightened to report missing people, and just left the area. But now we are hearing from them because for all these people it is so important to find their loved ones," he said. "In our culture it is so important to have a ceremony to bury your dead. Without it, these people can't mourn. They live in a limbo⁹, unable to move on."

The conflict between the Turkish state and Kurdish separatists reached its peak in the 1990s, claiming thousands of lives.

Retired¹⁰ brigadier general Haldun Solmazturk served for much of the 1990s fighting the PKK.

"You have to understand the situation. The very existence of the Turkish state was challenged. You know in the military you are either aggressive or you are losing. So under such circumstances such things - missing persons - could of happened, I can imagine," he said. "If such things happened in the region not only as a former member of the Turkish army but as a Turkish citizen, I would like the Turkish government to use every measure to make sure these cases are fully¹¹ solved and understood and the perpetrators found. Who ever committed to these crimes, this was not part of a military conflict it cannot not be, as a former professional soldier I cannot never accept that."

Solmazturk's hopes could one day be realized.

Human rights groups have long claimed that many of the excesses committed in the conflict were carried out by Jitem, an arm of Turkey's military police that human rights groups and local residents in southeastern Turkey blame for many of the killings¹² of Kurds. The Turkish military denies the existence of Jitem, or any role related to the disappearance⁴ and extrajudicial murder of Kurds.

Now its activities have to come to light as part of a court case. Several of the leading suspects in the case are believed to be former members of Jitem. The 68 suspects are on trial in Istanbul on charges of participating in an ultranationalist network known as Ergenekon that attempted to overthrow¹³ the West-leaning government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The ultranationalists oppose efforts by Mr. Erdogan and his government to pursue membership in the European Union. To join the bloc¹⁴, Turkey is expected to revamp its legal system and make its once-untouchable security forces more accountable, lending impetus¹⁵ to government efforts to resolve claims relating to Kurdish disappearances.

Abdurmann Kurt represents the region in the Turkish parliament, and is a member of the ruling AK party. He says the investigation¹⁶ is key to bringing peace to the region.

"For giving this feeling that the state is trying to create a justice in society, we need to find things that happened in the past times to find the responsible people of these kind of actions, who behaved not according to the laws and they had done lots of crimes against the society," he said. "If we find the responsible people of these kind of actions, I think this will really give a deep justice feeling to the Kurdish society especially and this will help to solve the Kurdish question, too, I think."

The search for the victims has been aided by information in a book published in 2004, by a former member of Jitem, Abdulkadir Aygan, that gave details of 28 murders and the locations of remains. Families of the missing also contributed information to aid the excavations¹⁷.

1 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

2 excavation   

n.挖掘，发掘；被挖掘之地

参考例句：

• The bad weather has hung up the work of excavation.天气不好耽误了挖掘工作。
• The excavation exposed some ancient ruins.这次挖掘暴露出一些古遗迹。

3 squads   

n.（军队中的）班( squad的名词复数 )；（暗杀）小组；体育运动的运动（代表）队；（对付某类犯罪活动的）警察队伍

参考例句：

• Anti-riot squads were called out to deal with the situation. 防暴队奉命出动以对付这一局势。 来自辞典例句
• Three squads constitute a platoon. 三个班组成一个排。 来自辞典例句

4 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。

5 disappearances   

n.消失( disappearance的名词复数 )；丢失；失踪；失踪案

参考例句：

• Most disappearances are the result of the terrorist activity. 大多数的失踪案都是恐怖分子造成的。 来自辞典例句
• The espionage, the betrayals, the arrests, the tortures, the executions, the disappearances will never cease. 间谍活动、叛党卖国、逮捕拷打、处决灭迹，这种事情永远不会完。 来自英汉文学

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

7 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

8 blindfolded   

v.（尤指用布）挡住（某人）的视线( blindfold的过去式 )；蒙住（某人）的眼睛；使不理解；蒙骗

参考例句：

• The hostages were tied up and blindfolded. 人质被捆绑起来并蒙上了眼睛。
• They were each blindfolded with big red handkerchiefs. 他们每个人的眼睛都被一块红色大手巾蒙住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 limbo   

n.地狱的边缘；监狱

参考例句：

• His life seemed stuck in limbo and he could not go forward and he could not go back.他的生活好像陷入了不知所措的境地，进退两难。
• I didn't know whether my family was alive or dead.I felt as if I was in limbo.我不知道家人是生是死，感觉自己茫然无措。

10 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

11 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

12 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

13 overthrow   

v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆

参考例句：

• After the overthrow of the government,the country was in chaos.政府被推翻后，这个国家处于混乱中。
• The overthrow of his plans left him much discouraged.他的计划的失败使得他很气馁。

14 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。

15 impetus   

n.推动，促进，刺激；推动力

参考例句：

• This is the primary impetus behind the economic recovery.这是促使经济复苏的主要动力。
• Her speech gave an impetus to my ideas.她的讲话激发了我的思绪。

16 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

17 excavations   

n.挖掘( excavation的名词复数 )；开凿；开凿的洞穴（或山路等）；（发掘出来的）古迹

参考例句：

• The excavations are open to the public. 发掘现场对公众开放。
• This year's excavations may reveal ancient artifacts. 今年的挖掘可能会发现史前古器物。 来自辞典例句