经济学人300:梵蒂冈和土耳其 永世铭记

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　　梵蒂冈和土耳其

　　Never forget

　　永世铭记

　　Forthrightness¹ about a past atrocity² provokes a strong reaction

　　直面暴行，一石激起千层浪

　　IN 1915 Pope Benedict XV wrote to Mehmed V, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, saying that he could hear “the echo of the groans³ of an entire people…subjected to unspeakable sufferings”. When the two leaders'modern-day counterparts met last November at the Turkish presidential palace outside Ankara, those echoes were still audible. According to a new book by Franca Giansoldati, the Vatican-watcher of Il Messaggero, an Italian daily, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's president, “begged” Pope Francis to refrain from openly characterising the Ottoman Empire's slaughter⁴ of Armenians in 1915 as genocide.

　　1915年教皇本笃十五世致函奥斯曼帝国苏丹—默罕默德五世，言及他能听到“整个民族遭受难以言状痛苦时所发出的呻吟在天际回响。” (一百年后的)今天，当年两大巨头各自的继任者去年11月在土耳其安卡拉外的总统官邸会见时，这种回响仍然久久不散。意大利报纸《信使报》梵蒂冈问题观察家Franca Giansoldati在一本新书中披露：土耳其总统雷杰普塔伊普埃尔多安“恳祈”教皇弗兰西斯不要把1915年奥斯曼帝国屠杀亚美尼亚人的事件公开定性为种族灭绝。

　　梵蒂冈.jpg

　　The pope respected his host's wishes then. But on April 12th he abandoned tact⁵ and referred to the killings⁶ as “the first genocide of the 20th century”. The Turkish government responded with outrage⁷ and recalled its ambassador to the Holy See for consultations⁸. A vote in the European Parliament on April 15th, commending the pope's statement and urging Turkey to recognise the massacres⁹ as genocide, further infuriated Mr Erdogan. “It is not possible for Turkey to accept such a crime, such a sin,” he said.

　　虽然一开始尊重了总统的诉求，但到了4月12日，教皇却撕破脸并将此次屠杀斥之为 “20世纪首屈一指的种族灭绝事件。”土耳其政府大吃一惊,召回了驻梵蒂冈教廷的使节进行磋商。4月15日欧洲议会投票表决支持教皇的声明，并敦促土耳其承认此次屠杀是种族灭绝行为，这更进一步激怒了埃尔多安总统。他说：“土耳其绝不承认这种罪行。”

　　Francis has used the same phrase before, most recently in 2013 when he met an Armenian delegation¹⁰. But that was scarcely reported, and the Turkish authorities merely expressed “disappointment” and called in the Vatican's envoy¹¹ for a ticking-off. This time, he was making a much-awaited speech in front of Armenia's president, Serzh Sargsyan, days before the official centenary commemorations on April 24th.

　　教皇方济各此前也用过相同的措辞，最近一次是在 2013 年接见亚美尼亚代表团时。但这些言论几乎鲜有报道,土耳其政府也仅仅是表示了“失望”,并召会梵蒂冈特使进申斥而已。然而这一次，就在4月24日的正式百年纪念活动开始的前几天，他当着亚美尼亚总统萨尔基相的面发表了这样一个“众望所归”言论。

　　Turkish diplomats¹² are understood to have set themselves two aims as the centenary approached: to stop the mass at which Francis spoke¹³ being held on the day itself, and to prevent him from using the G-word. They gained their first objective. In deciding to deny them their second, the pope and his diplomatic advisers¹⁴ had to weigh opposing factors.

　　百年庆典临近时，土耳其的外交官们心照不宣地为自己设定两个目标：其一是阻止纪念日当天方济各要作演讲的那个群众集会。其二是阻止他用“种族灭绝”的字眼。第一个目标落空了。而要顶住土耳其的第二个诉求，教皇和他的外交顾问不得不权衡对手的实力。

　　The Vatican has long been the venue¹⁵ of a tug-of-war between proponents¹⁶ of careful dialogue with the Islamic world and advocates of bluntness, who feel that tact has got Christians¹⁷ nowhere and that plain speaking is needed, even if it causes offence. The plain-speakers had the upper hand under the previous pope, Benedict XVI. Francis's latest comment suggests they are back in the ascendancy¹⁸.

　　长期以来，梵蒂冈处在一个两难境地：一派主张和伊斯兰世界对话务求谨慎，而另一派则主张直言不讳。后者认为圆滑世故将使得基督徒一事无成，因此即使会招灾惹祸，也须仗义执言。如今，在教皇本笃十六世的领导下，主张直言不讳的人占了上风，方济各最近的言论正表明了这种压倒性优势。

　　1.subject to 使服从，使遭受

　　例句:Already americans are subject to de-facto capital controls.

　　如今美国已经受到变相的资本控制。

　　2.respond with 回应

　　例句:He recently demonstrated a voice-based system that he designed to ask patients about their symptoms and to respond with empathy.

　　他最近展示了自己设计的一个语音系统，它能够询问病人的症状并且富有同情心地回应。

　　3.prevent from 阻止，防止

　　例句:This is related to a secondary consideration: how many bugs¹⁹ did you prevent from reaching manual testing where bugs start to be expensive?

　　这又关联到第二项考虑：在手动测试阶段，错误引发的代价是昂贵的，在此之前，你又究竟阻止了多少错误呢？

　　4.according to 根据，按照；据…所说

　　例句:Saudi arabia is considering two options,according to the official.

　　据这名官员表示，沙特正在考虑两套方案。

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