Turkey has recently implemented one of its most serious intelligence operations in its history. 

Whether it was accomplished with arms or without arms, with negotiations or without negotiations or with an intermediary person or not, no matter how it was done, it is a great achievement to bring every one of the 49 hostages back to the country without any bloody noses.  

This is an intelligence achievement. This is a political achievement. This is a sophisticated, trans-national operation. This is a demonstration of skills in managing the local elements. Being able to conduct a friendly relationship with their partners in Iraq is the Turkey’s trademark. 

To plan an operation as such, while reckoning all the probabilities, having the correct timing, and realizing it with success, is an achievement of having a quality international standard.  

Turkey, which before successfully rescued more than 5500 citizens from Libya, astonished the whole world. Our citizens were safely saved from the chaos of the internal war and brought back to our country. The capability of bringing such a massive number of people back to the country from such an organized warfare situation drew the attention of the whole world. Even so, some countries made a demand from Turkey saying, “please rescue our citizens, too”.  

We lose our sleep at night. 

However, this time with much more fine-tuning, the hostage rescue operation was realized. Our citizens were brought back to the country after being rescued from an organization like ISIL, which as soon as their map of expansion was known, looked toward the Turkish embassy and implemented the hostage act. 

No one was expecting the operation to end with such success. There were concerns and fear all over. This was a long and silence wait. It turned out that while we were having these concerns, some anonymous heroes were giving a long and enduring struggle. It is the success story of these anonymous heroes that lie behind the security success of the political authority. As a whole nation, we cannot thank them enough. 

When we went to Qatar with Tayyip Erdoğan, the first person we saw on board was the MIT consultant Hakan Fidan. We immediately recalled the issue of hostages then. The topic was so important that even a small development was giving us the feeling like “is there a new thing concerning the hostages?”   Even so, I wrote a message from Qatar saying, “If only we had some good news nowadays concerning the hostages.”  I then deleted the message for fear of being misunderstood. It turned out we had a true feeling or hope. 

We asked the president whether this topic had been brought up in Qatar or not. He replied, “We are negotiating with the groups in Iraq. We are contacting with them.” 

Turkey’s process regarding the hostages was led with its cooperation with the local groups in Iraq. The support of the local groups in Iraq for Turkey during this operation is especially notable. 

For the last ten days, the question of the hostages took a special place on our agenda in every meeting of ours with the President and Prime Minister. The Prime Minister was so sensitive that he was saying, “We lose our sleep at night.”  At that time, we did not mention this but I think there is nothing wrong to mention it after the release of the hostages. 

Silent diplomacy or the background diplomacy or secret operations, whatever term comes to your mind, all of them relate a success story, a victory. Turkey is a great country. It’s patient and strong. 

There were people inside who were rubbing their hands praying that nothing would happen to any of the hostages. Some people were dreaming about a “hostage card” through an internal political crisis. They based their contestation even on this or blood.  While Turkey was swiftly uprising, they were pursuing treason and evil. 

They were arguing, “Turkey is giving support to ISIS” and linking the question of hostages to the presidential elections and the identification of the new prime minister. They knew no limit in wickedness and indecency. They were both trying to sabotage the resolution process with the Kurds and create a crisis over the hostages. 

I am sure that because the hostages were rescued, they are having a serious problem of mental digestion and are going mad because their disaster scenario did not come true. Perhaps they collapsed psychologically.

Unfortunately, Turkey has to bear with those inauspicious people who are conditioned to use every chance against their country and take the opposite side in favor of their personal and organizational wrath. 

Let no one try to overshadow this great success of Turkey. Let no one produce excuses or “buts” and don’t let them use the wicked plans in their minds as a service to others. Let them know that they have no credit among us and that no one pays attention to them or takes them seriously. Even so, they are recognized as a threat to Turkey.

The trans-national operation, which MIT led, sends the whole world the following message: No matter where he is, whoever it is, as long as it is a Turkish citizen, he has a protector. He won’t be left to the mercy and initiative of others. Turkey will not kneel and pray for anyone concerning these matters, because its hands extend to every part of the world and wherever its hands extend, it will exercise its influence and protect its own citizens.

You will see this power and influence more in the future.

What do you think about those who raided MIT’s trucks and still argue, “Turkey is supporting terror”?  What are they feeling?  What project are they in?  Did these raids have any relevance to the question of hostages? What is the relationship between these raids and the fuss the western media has been making for months about “Turkey is giving support to ISIL”?

There are many things to raise questions about and lessons to learn. 

 Let’s feel honored and not become demoralized. We will have plenty of time to question all these. 

We are thankful to the President Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and the MIT consultant Hakan Fidan due to their service, which relieved us and made us rejoice. I am also sending my greetings to the anonymous heroes who contributed to the operation and whose names we don’t even know. 

Let’s keep believing strongly in Turkey. This is the new Turkey, that’s it!

By the way, do you think it’s just a coincidence that as soon as the Friday prayer was finished, French air flights took off for the bombardment and there was a delay on the return of the hostages?