土耳其和叙利亚

　　Bad blood bubbles

　　恶战到底

　　Relations between the two neighbours are getting worse than ever两邻国之间的关系到达历史冰点

　　A dangerous spat

　　一场危险的争执

　　After a series of mortar bombs fired from Syria landed in the south-eastern Turkish town of Akcakale, killing five people on October 3rd, Turkey’s government ordered its forces to fire on Syrian military targets. The Turkish shelling, which continued into Thursday, reportedly killed several Syrian soldiers, raising the spectre of a tit-for-tat that could get out of hand. Turkey has repeatedly called on the UN to impose a buffer zone in Syria to protect civilians and, by implication, to give rebels trying to overthrow the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad a haven. This latest escalation of hostilities between the two neighbours makes the prospect of a wider intervention a notch likelier. But as The Economist went to press, both sides seemed loth to let the spat slide into a bigger punch-up straight away.

　　10月3日，当叙利亚炮弹对准土耳其东南部小镇Akcakale进行一系列炮轰并杀害了其5名国民后，土耳其政府对部队下达命令以叙利亚为军事目标进行打击。炮火一直持续到周四，据报道一些叙利亚士兵在此次炮击中丧生，而两国这种针锋相对的形式有可能失控。土耳其一再呼吁联合国在叙利亚建立一个免战区来保护平民,言下之意,就是给试图推翻阿萨德的叙利亚政权的叛军分子一个避风港。而近期，两国之间不断升级的敌对事件，使得国外干预的可能性更高。就在《经济学人》付梓之际，双方似乎都不愿意引起更大规模的纷争之中。

　　土耳其和叙利亚恶战到底.jpg

　　After the Syrian attack, Turkey’s mildly Islamist prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, convened his top generals for emergency talks, while Ahmet Davutoglu, his foreign minister, called on the heads of NATO and the UN, among others, to back Turkey’s appeals for a buffer zone in S yria. In Akcakale residents chanting slogans took to the streets to protest. The town has been prey to stray bullets from Syria in the past fortnight, as clashes intensified between rebels and troops loyal to Mr Assad.

　　在叙利亚的袭击之后，土耳其外交部长呼吁北约和联合国的首脑，支持其在叙利亚建立一个安全区，与此同时，土耳其温和的伊斯兰总理雷杰普·塔伊普·埃尔多安(Recep Tayyip Erdogan)立即召集了高级军官进行了紧急会议。但是Akcakale小镇的居民上街喊着口号表示抗议。在过去的两周里，随着忠于叙利亚总统阿萨德和叛军之间矛盾的加剧，小镇犹如猎物般深陷流弹的囹圄。

　　Despite Turkey’s retaliatory strikes, which many Turks hope are a face-saving ploy rather than a prelude to war, it remained unclear whether the Syrian shells had been fired deliberately. Some Turks even speculated that the rebels’ Free Syrian Army, which Turkey has been helping by providing it with bases and probably arms and training, may have orchestrated the attack in a bid to lure Turkey into the conflict.

　　尽管土耳其进行报复性打击，而土耳其居民们希望这仅仅只是表面功夫而非战争前奏，但是到现在为止，仍不能确认叙利亚的炮击是否属于故意行为。一些土耳其公民甚至推测是那些叙利亚叛军的所做作为（土耳其一直通过提供与基地和武器和训练帮助他们），这起袭击也许是精心策划的，以将土耳其引入冲突。

　　A military confrontation between Turkey and Syria has been mooted ever since Syria downed a Turkish air force reconnaissance jet on June 22nd near the Syrian port city of Latakia. Turkey growled about possible retaliation, massing its troops along the border and declaring that it had revised its rules of engagement with Syria.

　　早在今年6月22日叙利亚在其港口城市拉塔基亚击落一架土耳其空军侦察起，两国之间的军事对峙就开始了。土耳其愤怒宣称将会进行可能的报复，沿着边境集结军队,并单方面对外称,已修改与叙利亚的交战规则。

　　Syria is now Mr Erdogan’s biggest headache, with opinion polls suggesting that most Turks are unhappy with his government’s so far fruitless attempts to change the regime in Damascus. The slaughter of Syrian civilians continues unabated. About 80,000 of them, at last count, had sought refuge in Turkey.

　　然而现在叙利亚仍然是Erdogan总理最头疼的问题，而民意调查显示众多的土耳其人对当局政府在大马士革政权更替问题到目前为止的都没有任何结果表示了不满。叙利亚对平民的屠杀一直在持续进行着。在最近的一次统计中,约有80000在土耳其寻求庇护。

　　Mr Erdogan’s support for Syria’s rebels has complicated and soured Turkey’s other relations in the region, particularly with Iran, Syria’s main local ally. Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, a Shia, has also turned against Mr Erdogan for coddling his Sunni rivals. Meanwhile, Mr Assad has resumed the backing his father Hafez, who was president before him, used to give to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey, ceding control of a string of towns along the Turkish border to the PKK’s allies in the Democratic Union Party, a group of Syrian Kurds better known as the PYD. Turkey’s enthusiasm for a buffer zone may well be boosted as much by its fear of these newly emboldened Kurds as by its concern for Syria’s beleaguered people.

　　Erdogan总理因为支持叙利亚反对派使得土耳其与邻国的关系变得更加恶劣，这其中尤其是叙利亚的盟友伊朗。伊拉克总理努里·马利基（Nuri al-Maliki）是位什叶派,也因为土耳其总理背弃他转而支持逊尼派对手而与其决裂。在此之前，阿萨德总统的父亲，前叙利亚总统哈菲兹（Hafez）一直支持土耳其的库尔德工人党（PKK）。而今，阿萨德总统也开始支持该党，并将土耳其边境一系列小镇的掌控权交由PKK在民主联盟党（Democratic Union Party）内的盟友。民主联盟党是有叙利亚库尔德人所组成，又称PYD。土耳其对受怂恿的库尔德人的恐惧和对陷入困境的叙利亚人的担忧使得加强了其对缓冲区的热情大大增加。