VOA标准英语2015--Yazidi Refugees at Center of Political Fight Between Turkey, Kurds

 

Yazidi Refugees at Center of Political Fight Between Turkey, Kurds

DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY—

The treatment of thousands of Yazidis refugees who fled to Turkey to escape attacks by Islamic State militants¹ has become the center of a dispute between the Turkish government and the country's pro-Kurdish movement.

Nearly 4,000 Yazidis who fled to Turkey have found sanctuary² at the Cinar refugee camp in Diyarbakir. The camp is one of 11 set up by local authorities under the control of the pro-Kurdish HDP party.

Mixerbi Suleiman, his pregnant wife and their seven children spent weeks in the mountains of Syria and Iraq before finding safety in Turkey.

"When Daesh [the Islamic State fighters] came, we could not stay any longer," Suleiman said. "We had to flee. There is no way any human can stand against them.  No force can be enough to fight them.  We ran to the mountains."

Camp director Metin Palandoken said the Diyarbakir municipality built the camp after thousands of Yazidis turned up on its doorstep.

At a women's center, children will be taught their lessons in Kurdish, the mother tongue of most Yazidis. In Turkish state camps, lessons are in Arabic.

Palandoken said the classes would be run by Yazidis themselves, a move that built trust after so much oppression.

Yazidis have been massacred for centuries, Palandoken said, and "because of this they don't trust anyone, especially Muslim societies. But in these last four months, we succeeded in gaining their trust."

Twelve of the 15 committee members who run the camp are Yazidi refugees.

But camp organizers said that other than the provision of some tents, the Turkish government has provided little support.

Turkey's ruling AK Party responds that there are perfectly³ adequate state camps. It accuses the pro-Kurdish HDP of using its camps to promote a Kurdish rights agenda.

"They are trying to get a political profit out of this," said Fatma Oncu, AK Party national committee member. "Our priority should be the safety of these refugees, but they turn it into a show for international media. We are still Turkey. There is no other country here."

But many Yazidis say they are reluctant to go to state camps, because they would have to live with Arabs.  They recall their traumatic experiences at the hands of Arab members of the Islamic State, said refugee Mehim Ibrahim Eydo.

"We don't want to live with Arabs — we don't want to see them again," Eydo said. "My neighbors were Arabs, and those who wanted to kill me were Arabs.  I lived in Iraq with Arabs for 30 years. Even if I have to fight 20 more years, I will not have my children go back and live with them again."

The idea of co-existence frightens many Yazidis, who now say their future is no longer in Iraq or Syria, but in asylum⁴ in Europe or the United States.

1 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

2 sanctuary   

n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区

参考例句：

• There was a sanctuary of political refugees behind the hospital.医院后面有一个政治难民的避难所。
• Most countries refuse to give sanctuary to people who hijack aeroplanes.大多数国家拒绝对劫机者提供庇护。

3 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

4 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。