Young, Educated Are Leaving as Turkey Marks Its 100th Anniversary

Young, Educated Are Leaving as Turkey Marks Its 100th Anniversary

当土耳其庆祝它的100周年时，年轻的，受过教育的人正在离开

【原文听力】

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　　By Gregory Stachel

　　09 November 2023

　　Economic problems and fears of repression in Turkey have caused Huseyin Buyukdag to make a decision. The teacher and his wife want to move to Germany to find a better life.

　　They are among a growing number of young and educated people who say they want to leave Turkey. They say their rights and freedoms there are being taken away, and inflation is high under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

　　After Erdogan secured a third term in office in May elections, things are unlikely to change, Buyukdag said.

　　"Even if I don't want this, even if I hate this, I will...leave this beautiful country," the 27-year-old English teacher told The Associated Press (AP).

　　Turkey is a country of over 84 million people. Several crises have affected Turkey in recent years. The official yearly inflation rate was 61 percent last month. Some economists believe the real number is double that.

　　For many, the way out is through education visas to study in other countries or work permits. TurkStat is the government's agency for official numbers, or statistics. It said 139,531 Turkish citizens left the country in 2022, compared to 103,613 in 2021. Those aged 25 to 29 formed the biggest group.

　　The numbers are a big increase from 77,810 Turks who left in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was at its highest.

　　Besim Dellaloglu is a sociologist. He believes people are leaving because of the disappearance of normal things in a democracy. Some are calling the movement of people to foreign countries "brain drain."

　　Brain drain happens when highly trained or educated people leave a country for a better life somewhere else.

　　Dellaloglu does not believe the brain drain will go away without "decreasing polarization in Turkey."

　　He said the most likely to leave are medical workers and those that work with technology. Highly trained individuals from all fields are also leaving.

　　Many other Turks prefer to stay, even with the problems.

　　"I can understand the people who are leaving, some things really need to change," said Fatma Zehra Eksi. She is a 22-year-old student from Istanbul. She noted, "But if we...leave because we are not comfortable here, then there will be no one left here to change things."

　　The growing lack of happiness comes as Turkey marks the 100th anniversary of Ataturk's establishment of the country as a secular republic. Ataturk was the first president of Turkey after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

　　Some Turks hoping to leave Turkey say that even getting a tourist visa, seen as a step to immigration, has become difficult.

　　AP spoke to many people considering emigration from Turkey. They said European countries have increased visa restrictions for Turkish travelers. These people and reports in Turkish media say the rate of visa rejections has increased and the process has become more complex.

　　Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut is a European Union diplomat for Turkey. He said rejections in Turkey were below the worldwide average. He told the Hurriyet newspaper in June that the EU has no policy of blocking visas for Turkish citizens.

　　Erdogan's government considers the reported visa rejections an effort to hurt support for his government by making Turks feel they cannot travel freely to Europe.

　　His government has promised to bring people home and turn back the brain drain. Erdogan has offered money in the form of grants, and jobs to Turks teaching in other countries. He said 6,000 people had returned under the plan.

　　However, Buyukdag, the teacher, said he and his wife have stepped up their efforts to leave a country where, he said, he could lose his job for saying the "wrong things."

　　"In Germany or in any Western country, you are a valuable person," he said. "In Turkey, you are not a valuable person because you can be called a traitor any time."

　　I'm Gena Bennett.

　　Seth Borenstein reported this story for The Associated Press. 　　

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　　作者:格雷戈里·斯塔切尔

　　2023年11月9日

　　经济问题和对土耳其镇压的恐惧促使Huseyin Buyukdag做出了一个决定。老师和他的妻子想搬到德国去寻找更好的生活。

　　他们是越来越多的受过教育的年轻人中的一员，他们说他们想离开土耳其。他们说，他们在那里的权利和自由被剥夺了，在总统雷杰普·塔伊普·埃尔多安的领导下，通货膨胀率很高。

　　Buyukdag说，在埃尔多安在5月的选举中获得第三个任期后，情况不太可能改变。

　　“即使我不想这样，即使我讨厌这样，我也会...离开这个美丽的国家，”这位27岁的英语老师告诉美联社。

　　土耳其是一个拥有8400多万人口的国家。近年来，几次危机影响了土耳其。上个月官方公布的年通货膨胀率为61%。一些经济学家认为实际数字是这个数字的两倍。

　　对许多人来说，出路是通过留学签证或工作许可证。土耳其统计局是政府的官方数字或统计机构。它表示，2022年有139，531名土耳其公民离开该国，而2021年为103，613人。25至29岁的人组成了最大的群体。

　　这个数字比2020年疫情冠状病毒最严重时离开的77，810名土耳其人有了很大增加。

　　贝西姆·德拉格卢是一名社会学家。他认为，人们离开是因为民主制度中正常事物的消失。一些人称人口向国外的流动为“人才外流”

　　当受过良好训练或教育的人离开一个国家到其他地方去过更好的生活时，人才外流就会发生。

　　Dellaloglu不相信人才流失会在没有“减少”的情况下消失极化在土耳其。"

　　他说最有可能离开的是医务工作者和那些从事技术工作的人。各行各业训练有素的人也在离开。

　　许多其他土耳其人宁愿留下来，即使有问题。

　　“我能理解那些离开的人，有些事情真的需要改变，”Fatma Zehra Eksi说。她是一名来自伊斯坦布尔的22岁学生。她指出，“但是如果我们...离开，因为我们不是舒适的在这里，没有人会留下来改变事情。"

　　幸福感的日益缺乏正值土耳其纪念阿塔图尔克建立国家100周年不朽的共和国。阿塔图尔克是奥斯曼帝国崩溃后土耳其的第一任总统。

　　一些希望离开土耳其的土耳其人说，即使得到一个旅行者签证，被视为移民的一个步骤，已经变得困难。

　　美联社采访了许多考虑移民来自土耳其。他们说，欧洲国家增加了对土耳其游客的签证限制。这些人和土耳其媒体的报道称，签证拒签率有所上升，签证过程变得更加复杂。

　　尼古拉·迈耶·兰德鲁特是欧盟驻土耳其外交官。他说土耳其的拒绝率低于世界平均水平。他在6月份告诉Hurriyet报纸，欧盟没有阻止土耳其公民签证的政策。

　　埃尔多安政府认为，报道中的签证被拒是为了伤害对他的政府的支持，让土耳其人觉得他们不能自由前往欧洲。

　　他的政府已经承诺让人们回国，并阻止人才外流。埃尔多安以赠款的形式向在其他国家教书的土耳其人提供资金和工作。他说，6000人已经根据该计划返回。

　　然而，教师Buyukdag说，他和他的妻子已经加紧努力离开这个国家，他说，在那里，他可能会因为说“错误的话”而失去工作。

　　“在德国或任何西方国家，你都是一个有价值的人，”他说。“在土耳其，你不是一个有价值的人，因为你可以被称为一个叛徒任何时候。"

　　我是吉娜·班尼特。

　　赛斯·博伦斯坦为美联社报道了这个故事。

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　　这个故事中的词语

　　sociologist –n. 研究社会、社会组织和社会行为的人

　　polarize – v. 使(人或观点)分裂成对立的团体

　　comfortable – adj. 让你放松:不引起忧虑、困难或不确定性

　　secular – adj. 与宗教无关的东西

　　tourist – n. 去一个地方旅游取乐的人

　　emigration – n.离开一个国家去另一个国家生活的过程

　　traitor – n. 通过帮助或支持敌人而背叛一个国家或一群人的人