A miracle occurred in this country three years ago that shook the entire region and surprised the world. This game-changing miracle, which was not recorded by political history, reversed history within a matter of a few hours, presented extraordinary examples to humanity, and messed up all power maps.

The spirit of resistance that governed these lands, every inch of the region that belongs to “us,” in Anatolia, Mesopotamia, the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, on African coasts for the last millennium, that was believed to have been forgotten, returned with a bang, and the fight of a millennium was put up in one night.

That night, an attack was launched on Turkey through the U.S., through Europe, as well as through other countries in our region. What was started by the hand of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), which bred within the system for as long as four decades, was the gravest attack after World War I.

It was not a coup but rather a civil war plot. It was not an intervention but rather an attempt to banish Turkey from history. It was not only FETÖ attacking us but also the West bloc. It was not an attempt to change the government, to change the regime, but rather a project aimed at dividing the homeland, separating the Thrace from Anatolia, dividing the country into pieces.

The first aim was to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, martyr him by the hand of the assassins sent to Marmaris, to render the state dysfunctional, break out a civil war through ethnic and sectarian identities and pit people against one another, to turn Turkey into Syria and divide it into pieces.

The second aim was to prevent Turkey, which is on a rapid growth streak, which has turned to its own historical and regional claims and resurfaced its Seljuk/Ottoman political legacy, from growing any further, to stop it, and as a matter of fact, to eliminate it in order to conveniently implement its plan to shred the region into pieces.

On July 15, 2016, they were opening the “Turkey front”; that was the decision. Tanks had departed their barracks; the traitors within the military were unleashed on the streets; bridges were closed off; execution lists compassing of thousands of people were prepared; and concentration camps were determined for tens of thousands of people.

The people’s Parliament was bombed; civilians were crushed under tanks; bullets rained over the people on the streets – a massacre had been initiated. The terrorist teams under U.S. protection in Pennsylvania were targeting everything belonging to our country, our nation, our homeland, our values, our history, our union and integrity.

Yet, the miracle that nobody had expected occurred. Our nation united in a matter of a couple of hours on the homeland axis with great fury. Hundreds of thousands poured to the streets across Turkey. Masses were taking on tanks and bullets. There was no equivalent of this enthusiasm and courage. The elderly, youth and women, people with strong hearts were changing history. People who never saw a gun in their lives were running toward bullets. That night, all fears were overcome.

Our nation that made history through the fighting tradition was back up on its feet again for the first time since the Crusades. It was not only Turkey being rescued; a region was being revived, and the millennium-old “relentless resistance” was being activated. A counter-revolution was taking place. The people of Anatolia were bringing the multinational alliance to its knees against all the aggressor countries of the Atlantic alliance.

That night, the struggle of the century materialized in the matter of a few hours, and global power maps were turned upside down. That night, everybody who fell martyr, who became a veteran, who was disabled, who was orphaned, who prayed, who carried their anger to the streets, who voiced it through their writing, whose hearts were filled with God and hence forgot fear, are sacred to this nation.

The photographs, scenes, footage from that night were the most striking moments of the world’s political history. The world had a lot to learn from that night about tanks and people, bullets and people, and the homeland and its people.

That night, there was a nation that came to its senses through the salah recited from the mosque minarets throughout the country, that were revived with the adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, that were protected with prayers. That night, the biggest attack since World War I was thwarted.

July 15 is a summary of our millennium-long political history, the struggle we have been putting up since the Battle of Manzikert – it is a turning point. It is the revenge of World War I. It is the epic struggle, the rebellion, the inevitable rise of a nation against multinational attacks.

July 15 is the declaration that we are “us,” that our hearts are bound together, that we stand shoulder-to-shoulder, that we are a nation, that we stand on the “homeland” axis, that we are Anatolia. It is the greatest blow struck to the “betrayal” vein that has been ongoing for centuries.

July 15 is the end of the enslavement that started with World War I and was hidden until then; it is coming to existence again after a century; it is the commencement of the new rising period; it is liberation, nationalization, localization.

July 15 is the milestone of our return to history, our return to culture, our return to the region, our return to brotherhood, our return to our plans and claims.

July 15 is our declaration to the world that there is no turning back, that, if necessary, we will give thousands of martyrs and still continue on our path, that we will not pay attention to the region’s garrison states, that we will ignore imperial custodians, that we have ended the frozen history of the 20th century.

July 15 is the confirmation that we started writing history anew after World War I – just as we started it after the Crusades and the Mongolian invasion – that we have saved ourselves from the third great shock, that we have learned to walk tall, that we are ‘Great Turkey’ for the first time since the Ottoman Empire.

July 15 is a sign that we turned the “siege century” into the “countdown century,” that in the next step, we are going to enter the “challenge century.” It is proof that we will never surrender to a second 20th century.

July 15 is our nation, it is the children of Anatolia standing up against those who sold off their country, those who sold off their people, those who sold off their values, their history and honor. It is the elimination of those who were cultivated, protected under the name of religious movements, under the name of terrorist organizations, under the name of nongovernmental organizations, under the guise of intellectuals for decades, and kept hidden until the time came.

July 15 is the history of men who used their chests as shields against bullets, those who lay in front of tanks, women who did not step back in the face of bullets that night; it is the history of those who ran in the dark of the night towards martyrdom for their homeland. Those who showed how every inch of this country, its every village, town, city will turn into defense lines, to resistance fortresses when the time comes, are leaders of the resistance tradition that has been ongoing for a millennium.

July 15 is the last battle of independence we fought against the dozens of countries, including the U.S., Germany, the U.K., and against the traitors in our midst. That night was the night we changed political history. It is the night we continued the fight we put up in Kut al-Amara, in Gaza, in the Balkans, the Caucasus, Sarıkamış, and in Medina.

July 15 is the date Anatolia, the last fortress of the region, the asylum for everybody who was driven out of their countries for the last two centuries, the homeland of those without a homeland, the land that embraces orphans, showed them the way to the region and the method of the new battles of independence.

That night, God proved that He is with our nation. He has heralded the good news that He will stand by our side on that path to victory as we continue with firmer and stronger steps in that great march. The “Relentless Resistance” is continuing. This is fate for us, for our nation.

It is a destiny for those who have never cried, knelt in fear, took shelter in others’ history for ages, and those who have sacrificed martyrs on these lands for centuries. And, we are going to continue to walk on the homeland axis with our fists clenched.

That night, Turkey’s political leader, those who walked shoulder-to-shoulder with him, and the millions that flocked behind him won. That night, one of the greatest victories of our millennium-old political history was won. That night, those who watered this homeland with their blood were as great as the defense of Medina, the defense of Jerusalem, the martyrs of Çanakkale.

Do not walk with anybody who does not remember that night and shed tears – will not take their companionship.

But the native invader treachery will not be forgotten.

I wrote this article on the anniversary of July 15 last year. I am re-sharing it with some minor changes. Though there are those trying to make July 15 forgotten, to weaken it; we are not going to allow the greatest resistance of the region and world political history to be forgotten – we are going to continue to narrate it.

Because today, there are multinational fronts targeting our country being built in the north of Syria, in the East Mediterranean, in the entire region from the Aegean region to Libya. We are being threatened and besieged. The same siege is taking place within as well. There is also a native invader front being established to punish our country’s rise that is spreading through the 21st century. Those trying to siege from abroad and within are planning new July 15s, new destruction plans.

Then a much rougher showdown is approaching. If there is going to be an exacerbated, bigger attack than July 15, a much tougher resistance will be waiting for them. This has been the case for centuries. Those who have abandoned our country at such a time will be remembered in history for their betrayal.

Keep your hearts and minds pure. Never allow them to blind you. Clench your fists. Do not allow your voice and knees to shake. As they prepare in the East Mediterranean, we will march to the east of the Euphrates. Whatever your political identity, look at the millennium-long history in this region and then decide where you are going to stand. There is no longer any political identity other than the “Turkey axis.”