For days now, the world has been watching the collapse of a superpower in Afghanistan, the failure of an invasion that cost two decades and a trillion dollars, and the Taliban’s return to Kabul stronger than before. 

The world is watching how the U.S. and Europe lost a power struggle in the world’s central region, like the Middle East and Central Asia; how the claims of building a global empire that was initiated three decades ago became history; how the invasions of Asia, which started with British colonial rule in India ended with defeat in Afghanistan; how history is being turned on its head.

Humanity is watching how the negative images produced through the Taliban do not conceal the U.S. and Europe’s shame, how those trying to escape by clinging onto aircraft’s landing gears crash to the ground, how the people packed into cargo planes like sardines were dropped off in Uganda instead of the U.S, and the dramatic end. Humanity is watching unfold the dire consequences of those who trusted the U.S. and cooperated with invasion forces in their own country. 

Those who know what happened two decades ago will remember how hundreds and thousands of people were massacred, how children and schools were bombed, how the Afghan public was sacrificed to gain control over opium poppy fields, and how the most tragic torture centers in human history were operated.

The Muslim Middle Zone, which spans Morocco and Indonesia, the Atlantic and the Pacific, forming the world’s main axis, the region of empires and civilizations, experienced humanity’s most tragic events of the last century. 

Afghanistan was the pinnacle of this humiliation and destruction. History, which is being reversed from this moment on, will not be limited to Afghanistan. In a matter of days, we have witnessed one of the most dramatic and intense examples of the power struggle raging between the East and the West. 

Turkey, a country that has great claims for the 21st century, will base its “Afghanistan policy” on these facts. As the global power domain is being redivided, as the region becomes host to deadly power struggles, Turkey, the sole power that will help the region recover, cannot be sacrificed to the obscuration operations carried out through the Taliban. 

Those who are attacking Turkey with the bullets of others, those conducting a war within through operations spanning “Afghan and Syrian refugees,” those attempting to “stop Turkey from within,” should learn from the events that transpired at Kabul airport. 

We all bore witness to how those who carried out the dirty work of others crashed to the ground from the aircraft’s landing gears, how they were taken with cargo planes only to be left in the middle of Africa, how thousands were sold and left to their fate. 

Now, let us turn within and explain again: 

Why was there a kerfuffle in Turkey when the U.S. defeat seemed close at hand and it withdrew its troops? Everybody, whether rightists, leftist, liberal, or conservative, sought comfort in the lie, “The U.S. will never lose; it must have another strategy in mind.” 

1- You might shed a tear or two, but the truth is, the U.S. lost. Its defeat was nigh, so it fled. You have no other option but to stomach this. We witnessed the tragic fate of those who trusted the U.S., seeking power. They either crashed to the ground or found themselves in Uganda. 

2- You will be disappointed yet again, because the U.S. is going to pull its troops out of many Middle Eastern countries, including Syria. Out of nowhere, it will even abandon the terror corridor it has been working on building in northern Syria. It won’t give two cents about the weapons it amassed there. 

3- You will be disappointed yet again, because the U.S. is not going to be able to give Turkey’s opposition a power signal. Even if it does, it will mobilize them, then abandon them with squat in the middle of the process. This is because the U.S. can no longer change regimes and appoint governments. That era is long gone. It no longer even cares about being a global empire. It is now in defense mode. It started to build defense lines in Central America, in Europe, in the Baltics, and the Pacific. 

4- You will be disappointed yet again, because the global power map has changed radically. The U.S. and Europe’s centuries-long sovereignty is over. We have reached the end of Western globalization. Turkey is now playing in the giants’ league and is setting the game. The world has accepted this. Every country, from the U.S. to Europe, from the Middle East to Africa, from the Pacific to Central Asia has discovered Turkey’s rising power. 

5- Do not hide behind the American vilification of the Taliban. This is insufficient to reveal the truth of Afghanistan and the world. Do not hide behind women’s rights. Was it not the U.S. that bombed weddings and schools, killed thousands of women and children, and built rape camps in Iraq? 

6- Do not dare sing the “Taliban is bad, invasion is good” tune. Even the worst group that is devoted to their country is better than occupation forces. Countries alone decide how they will live. They will go through their own internal transformation anyway. Do not defend U.S. and Western colonialism by whitewashing certain lifestyles.

No loyalty to Turkey

We are being subjected to “internal terrorism” of those who feel no connection to Turkey. These groups are the source of all the misery and hopelessness, and they are supported by those who lost in Afghanistan. Fortunately, the world does not revolve around them. Turkey does not act according to their whims. Otherwise, they would turn Turkey into Afghanistan. They tried this a few times, but to no avail. They will never be able to succeed. 

The Taliban is Afghanistan’s reality. Only time will tell whether this will change or not. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, and Turkey’s Afghanistan policy represent the country's 21st-century mind and wisdom. Erdoğan is one of this century’s pioneers. He needs to be compared with the leaders of the Ottoman Empire’s rising era.

You will be stranded like those in Kabul. 

We built and ruled the Seljuk Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish Republic, and past empires and civilizations with this intellect. We are going to continue to rule from now on with this mind. Despite you. Despite your evil deeds against this country. There have always been those like you; for centuries. But we always succeeded. We will do it again. You will be left, stranded like those in Kabul.