2017年10月14日

トルコとアメリカとの関係は限界点に近い。 ビザの発給禁止は2国のNATO同盟国間の関係の急激な悪化に導いている。

Relations between Turkey and America are near breaking point
A visa ban leads to a sharp deterioration in relations between two NATO allies
Oct 9th 2017 | ISTANBUL

トルコとアメリカとの関係は限界点に近い。
ビザの発給禁止は2国のNATO同盟国間の関係の急激な悪化に導いている。



TWO weeks after Donald Trump declared they were as good as ever, America’s relations with Turkey have sunk to their lowest point in over four decades. On October 8th the American embassy in Ankara announced it was suspending visa services across the country to “reassess” the Turkish government’s commitment to the security of its diplomatic facilities and staff members. Within hours, Turkey countered by saying it would no longer accept visa applications by American citizens. (About 450,000 Americans visited Turkey last year.) 

reassess:再検討する
countered:だと反論する

The Turkish lira plummeted as much as 6.6% against the dollar on the news, the biggest drop since the abortive coup of July 2016. Turkish Airlines, the country’s national carrier, saw its shares fall by 8%. 

abortive:失敗に終わった

The spark that lit the powder keg came on October 4th, when police in Istanbul arrested Metin Topuz, a Turkish member of staff at the American consulate, on charges relating to the coup and to espionage. (A total of about 50,000 people have been arrested on similar charges over the past year.) The bulk of the evidence against Mr Topuz seemed to consist of conversations he had conducted four years ago with Turkish officials linked to the Gulen movement, the group accused of spearheading last year’s failed coup. The embassy has described the allegations against him as “wholly without merit.” 

powder keg:火薬ダル
spearheading:〈攻撃事業運動など〉の先頭[陣頭]に立つ
wholly without merit:全く価値の無いことだ

The incident is far from a first. A translator at another American consulate in Turkey was arrested in March on suspicion of links to an outlawed Kurdish insurgent group. An American pastor, Andrew Brunson, has languished in a Turkish prison for a year over alleged contacts with Gulen sympathisers. And reports in the Turkish media suggest that an arrest warrant has been issued for another Turkish national employed at the Istanbul consulate. 

languished:【場所に】(長期間)やむなくいる, 閉じ込められる
arrest warrant:逮捕令状

Despite Mr Trump’s remark, made during a meeting on September 21st with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that the two NATO countries were “as close as we’ve ever been”, relations have been heading south for at least a couple of years. Most Turks continue to believe that the Americans had a hand in the failed coup, a belief compounded by the fact that its suspected ringleader, the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, lives in Pennsylvania. Mr Erdogan has sought the imam’s extradition for over a year, despite failing to produce conclusive evidence linking him to the coup. 

heading south:〈かつては良かった状況組織基準などが〉悪くなる, だめになる
hand:手伝い
compounded:〈良くない物事が〉〈問題困難な状況など〉をさらに複雑にする, さらに悪化させる
ringleader:首謀者・ボス
extradition:(国外逃亡犯の)本国送還
conclusive evidence:決定的証拠

Turkey is also livid with America, its NATO ally, for arming a Kurdish militia it considers a terrorist group in the war against the jihadists of Islamic State (IS) in neighbouring Syria. America, meanwhile, remains angry that Turkey turned a blind eye to IS and other jihadist networks on its own side of the border until about 2015. Mr Erdogan’s increasingly toxic reputation in Washington took another hit earlier this spring, after his bodyguards were caught on video beating up non-violent protesters a mile from the White House. 

livid:激怒した
toxic::我慢ならない

Yet another source of tension is Turkey’s increasing reliance on Russia for its security needs. Last month, the Turkish government confirmed that it had made a down-payment on the purchase of Russia’s S-400 air-defence system. This week, Turkey and Russia launched a joint operation intended to contain the spread of jihadist groups in the Syrian province of Idlib. 

down-payment:(分割払いの)頭金

For America, the arrest of the consular staffers and the continued imprisonment of the pastor have struck a particularly sensitive nerve. Officials in Washington seem to have reached the conclusion that Turkey’s government is using the men as hostages in an attempt to put pressure on the American judiciary. (Germany’s government considers a dozen or so German nationals in Turkish custody, including a couple of journalists, part of a similar strategy.) Mr Erdogan no longer bothers to suggest otherwise. “They tell us to give them the pastor,” he said in a speech on September 28th, referring to Mr Brunson. “You have a pastor as well. Give us [Mr Gulen], then we will try him [Mr Brunson] and give him to you.” 

staffers:(特に行政[報道]機関の)職員, 社員
strike a nerve with:(人)の神経に障る

Most analysts agree it is in the interest of both sides to prevent the situation from escalating. That is indeed the most likely scenario. But with leaders as impulsive and as thin-skinned as Mr Trump and Mr Erdogan at the helm, nothing is certain. 

impulsive:衝動的な, 一時の感情に駆られた
thin-skinned:(批判侮辱などに)すぐ怒る, 憤慨しやすい
helm:かじとり

エルドアンとトランプの仲が悪い。ビザの発給を停止している。エルドアンは昨年のクーデターはアメリカの策略だと思っている。その為、アメリカのNGOを排除したり、トルコにいるアメリカ人を逮捕している。トルコはアメリカにギュレンを返せと言っているが、アメリカは民主主義の国だから そう簡単には送還はしないだろう。さらに、トルコはロシアに接近し、軍用機の購入契約までしている。そのうちに、NATOも撤退してしまうのかもしれない。

日曜日。ではまた明日。

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海野 恵一
1948年1月14日生

学歴:東京大学経済学部卒業

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アクセンチュア株式会社代表取締役(2001-2002)
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