美国国家公共电台 NPR Turks Fleeing To Greece Find Mostly Warm Welcome, Despite History

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

For years now, war refugees from places like Syria have been fleeing to the European Union by crossing through Turkey into Greece. Now, as Turkey's government is becoming increasingly authoritarian¹, some Turkish citizens are also crossing into Greece. Joanna Kakissis reports.

JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE²: Hello. Are you Shu (ph)?

SUMEYYE NUR: Yes, I'm Shu.

KAKISSIS: Hi. I'm Joanna, nice to meet you.

I meet Sumeyye Nur in a hostel³ in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki. Over coffee, the 41-year-old former civil servant from Ankara recalls the night she realized her own country was no longer safe. It was a night last year when two police officers dragged away her elderly father, claiming he had money in an anti-government bank.

NUR: He stayed eight months in prison, and you cannot imagine the condition - terrible, overcrowded. And not everybody has a bed. And these people are doctors, teachers, professors.

KAKISSIS: Then the authorities came after her. Her father told her to get out of Turkey, so she paid a smuggler⁴ roughly $6,000 to cross a river into neighboring Greece.

NUR: I came last January. When I came to here, we were like 10 families.

KAKISSIS: Now there are thought to be more than a thousand Turks here. They are among tens of thousands hunted by the Turkish government after last year's failed military coup⁵.

TUBA GUVEN: It's impossible now to criticize in any way the government. If you write something on Twitter, you can go directly to prison.

KAKISSIS: Tuba Guven is a former TV reporter who also fled to Thessaloniki.

GUVEN: I have done nothing against my state, OK. I have different ideas, different opinions, but I am not terrorist. I have done nothing illegal to my state, to my country, to my people.

KAKISSIS: I meet Tuba and her husband, Cevheri, at a cafe near Thessaloniki’s port. Back home, Cevheri ran a weekly political magazine that published a cover critical of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Cevheri live-tweeted his own arrest.

CEVHERI: (Through interpreter) There were many charges brought against me - starting a civil war, making terror propaganda, arming people against the government and trying to bring down the government. That last charge, that's what I was found guilty of.

KAKISSIS: He was sentenced to 22 years in prison but fled with his family to Greece.

Why Greece?

GUVEN: Why Greece? Because only democratic country and neighboring Turkey, so we have borders.

KAKISSIS: After crossing the border, the couple and their two young children settled in Thessaloniki, which is actually the birthplace of Turkey's founder⁶ - Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Greece and Turkey have a tense history over territory, so Tuba was worried.

GUVEN: You know, because of historical problems, we always think each other is the enemy. So I thought maybe they don't like me because I am Turk, but it's a very false idea. They welcomed me.

THANOS DOKOS: Despite the political problems between the two countries, relations between the Greek and Turkish people have always been quite warm.

KAKISSIS: Thanos Dokos runs the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy in Athens.

DOKOS: They're fully⁷ justified⁸ to feel safe in this country. And it's difficult to imagine that they will be forcibly returned to Turkey under any circumstances.

KAKISSIS: The Greek Supreme⁹ Court already refused to allow the extradition¹⁰ of eight Turkish military officers who fled to Greece, saying they would not get a fair trial in Turkey.

For NPR News, I'm Joanna Kakissis in Athens.

(SOUNDBITE OF LOESS' "FENS")

1 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。

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 hostel   

n.（学生）宿舍，招待所

参考例句：

• I lived in a hostel while I was a student.我求学期间住在青年招待所里。
• He says he's staying at a Youth Hostel.他说他现住在一家青年招待所。

4 smuggler   

n.走私者

参考例句：

• The smuggler is in prison tonight, awaiting extradition to Britain. 这名走私犯今晚在监狱，等待引渡到英国。
• The smuggler was finally obliged to inform against his boss. 那个走私犯最后不得不告发他的首领。

5 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。

6 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

7 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。

8 justified   

a.正当的，有理的

参考例句：

• She felt fully justified in asking for her money back. 她认为有充分的理由要求退款。
• The prisoner has certainly justified his claims by his actions. 那个囚犯确实已用自己的行动表明他的要求是正当的。

9 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

10 extradition   

n.引渡（逃犯）

参考例句：

• The smuggler is in prison tonight,awaiting extradition to Britain.这名走私犯今晚在监狱，等待引渡到英国。
• He began to trouble concerning the extradition laws.他开始费尽心思地去想关于引渡法的问题。