The land whose name I love in every sense, with all its colors, treasures, all its problems, all its griefs and joys, and in all its loneliness.

We felt your absence in every corner of the Balkans, in the Caucasus, in Yemen, and at a time in Anatolia, along the coasts, and in the heart of our region. We felt your absence in our region, which was divided a century ago, in our minds and hearts. We felt the pain, the hopelessness and void of your absence in all our colors and identities.

We felt your absence in memories, and the heart-wrenching ballads of the children of Anatolia, who devoted themselves to keeping Anatolia standing strong, to render it the last fortress, by running to Gaza, to Yemen, to the Canal, and to Basra to keep our wings strong.

We felt your absence, the sense of being sieged from all corners, at the time when the whole world gave us a hard time. We felt your absence in Sarıkamış, in Çanakkale, as the West was advancing all the way into Anatolia.

A century passed. We showed patience for a century. We tried to forget that pain. We never showed our grief, the massacres we went through. We did not cry. We did not kneel. We did not beg or ask for mercy. We maintained our honor. We kept silent, and through silence, we tried to remain standing. We protected you, the last fortress, by preserving our fury, our ideals, and ourselves through silence.

A century has passed; we woke up, came to our senses and said, "Patience is over." We said, “We need to exist now, we need to get up on our feet, come to our senses, and put an end to this silence.”

Because the world was being re-established, the region was being reshaped, and history was changing direction. Divided country maps were being handed over from table to table; they thought that even the "last fortress" was too much for us.

Wars were at our door; countries were being destroyed, nations were being slaughtered, borders were being changed; and a horrific occupation of the region was being carried out with various excuses.

We have understood that we cannot exist by keeping silent and remain standing by becoming introverted. We learned that no axis, no alliance, no friendship can stop this great occupation.

Because the attack was not coming from "friends," from "allies." We no longer had friends or allies; a storm was surrounding us from all corners; they wanted to complete what they could not finish a century ago.

We had to build a great power. We had to bring forth the memory, experiences, and ideals of a great nation. We had to not only resist but also challenge. We had to not only defend but take charge. We had to protect not only our borders but meet the storm at its origin.

Our political gene had to perceive the centuries-old "history-making will" as a power and we had to seek refuge in it. We have come to understand that we have no other strength, opportunity or way.

Because we did not want to sing the Danube River songs for Kızılırmak, we did not want to mourn Sakarya as we do Yemen, we did not want the war at our borders to reach Maraş or Sivas. We have come to understand that we have no other choice but to draw our own maps against those map drafts.

This is why we are saying "homeland," "perpetuity" once more after a century. This is why we carried on our century-old memory to the present. This is why we are saying Sarıkamış, Kut al-Amara, Çanakkale, Bosnia, and the Caucasus Islamic Army once again.

We saw that storm, and the direction the world and the region are headed toward. We saw the world order collapse and that it could not be reestablished. We saw how states were engrossed in the fear of doomsday, and they hence became introverted, returned to their historical plans, and prepared themselves for great showdowns.

We know how this can reflect on us. Beyond seeing, we started to experience it. We realized that the hundreds-of-kilometers-long "Turkey front" in the north of Syria is not a terror issue, but an invasion matter.

We interpreted the meaning of the world's fleet gathering in the East Mediterranean, their search for an excuse in the Aegean, and preparations for a crazy storm in the Black Sea. We saw what was being done inside Turkey through the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and what is being prepared through their substitutions.

This is why we brought the challenge of the century to the present - just as we did the fury and patience of a century. Today, we are striving to exist in the same countries and regions as we were a century ago, but in a different format.

We sought our path and our footprints of a century ago, from East Africa to the Caspian coasts, from the Indian Ocean to the East Mediterranean, from the shores of the Danube to Kirkuk and Aleppo.

We understood that we will not and cannot stand anywhere other than on the "Turkey axis," and that apart from our own strength and loud voices, we are alone.

We realized that whoever was against us in Çanakkale, the Canal and Lausanne a century ago have gathered once again, that they started a major mobilization to "stop Turkey," that they reach wherever we touch, and that they are trying to exile us from the entire region and leave us defenseless. We have come to understand that a century later, we have once again become the final target.

Hence, we started a struggle. This is why we challenged them. This is why we took an oath to never experience the grief of the homeland, and the fear of losing it again.

A comprehensive navy drill called "Blue Homeland" is starting across our seas today. We are in a period of a fight we hold "sacred" in every inch of our land and seas. There will not and cannot be any political aim beyond this.

We experienced the collapse of history a century ago. Now we are witnessing its rise, and we know this too. We are sure that all their plans will fail, that they will collapse as we rise.

This is the homeland whose name I love in all its senses, in all its colors, all its treasures, all its problems, in all its griefs and joys, and in all its loneliness.

We will no longer mourn. We are not going to experience the "fear of losing you" ever again. This is going to be the oath of the 21st century.