The matter of priority for Turkey and which it will never negotiate on is the securing of the region spanning the Mediterranean and the Iranian border, in other words, the southern border, and the establishment of a deep security zone outward from this long borderline.

The entire region north of the Aleppo-Mosul line is an internal issue for us. All the terror, the foreign powers there are threats for us. No organization, no state, no force outside the region can shadow, prevent Turkey’s self-defense, its struggle for existence, and its right to defense.

The region from the Eastern Mediterranean to Iran, in other words, the area between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, is getting ready for a “regional” crisis, a “regional” war. This is no longer a war of organizations, a crisis that we can limit to a state. This is now an issue of those who live in this geography, an issue that concerns the entire region.

Even regional reality is no longer expressed with the ethnic and sectarian discourse. The building or destruction of a geography is in question. A new political climate, the formation of an environment or the local environment, the region’s own unique existence being destroyed is in question.

Tying Turkey’s hands and arms, restricting its area of movement, urging it to restlessness with certain political projects and public pressure in the new regional showdown actively joined by the U.S. and Europe, Israel, Russia, as well as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which are on the U.S. and Israel’s side, will be a huge burden.

Turkey is obliged to be present everywhere it can reach within the region. It has to strive to reach as far as possible, as far as its power allows. The moment it pulls away, attacks will be served to the zero point of our border, as a matter of fact, inside the country, and will come at us in waves.

This is why the July 15 attack is the gravest attack since the founding of Turkey; it is actually an operation of destruction, a project to turn the country into Syria.

The steps Turkey took immediately after this attack is not only against terrorism, but they were to the extent of impacting the region’s future. The Euphrates Shield, the Afrin operation and the siege of Qandil which has become quite obvious these days, is not only a fight against terrorism, it is also an extraordinary response to regional destruction projects. It has become a response given with centuries’ worth of accretion in the region to internal and external operations aimed at destroying, at shrinking Turkey.

They had established a ‘Turkey front.’

Now, we are establishing our front.

As a matter of fact, these are reactions, not responses. These operations are radical steps aimed at building the region, establishing the Turkey of the future. They are geopolitical interventions that reverse the plan of the U.S., Israel and some European countries to shrink countries one by one, weaken them through terrorist organizations and then shrink them, interventions that negate their projects to set up a hundreds-of-kilometers-long “Turkey Front” along the Syria and Iraq border.

While they were preparing to establish a “Turkey Front” and attack after July 15, Turkey, our nation foiled both July 15 and their plans for a hundreds-of-kilometers-long “Turkey Front.”

Now, we are establishing our own front. We started with the Euphrates Shield and continued with the Afrin operation and we are going to further deepen it with an intervention in Qandil.

An agreement was ensured yesterday in Manbij. We will see how much it will be abided by, to what extent the U.S. will keep its promises. We do not trust it in any way. They did not keep any promises they have made to date. Promises aside, they were the ones who cultivated all the terrorist organizations and then pit them against us. It’s still the same. They are negotiating with us to defend the terror organization there!

Turkey did something very important. It first closed the Mediterranean gates of the terror corridor. If it were not for the Afrin operation, they were going to incline toward Hatay too and join the Iranian border to the Mediterranean. Then, we would have had to fight for Hatay as well.

When the Mediterranean gate was closed, the U.S., Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE established a new front further south. A corridor that would strike Syria from the south and extend to Iran was going to be opened. They are now fighting for this. I personally think that the U.S.’s hope for the north has largely diminished.

Turkey is now taking control over the east side of that corridor. It has been carrying out an elaborately-planned operation in northern Iraq since March and taking Qandil under siege; it is cutting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) relation with the West from this region. Turkey, which already has a strong military presence, bases and contact points in that region, is, perhaps, for the very first time, marching with Qandil as its direct target.

In time, Turkey is going to carry out break-out operations from a few more regions through Syria and Iraq and know to take control of the region. The terror corridor, whose Western/Mediterranean and Eastern gates have been closed will, in time, be shredded into pieces.

We are now following the in-depth operation in northern Iraq. Don’t be surprised if the flag goes up in Qandil before the June 24 elections, if the region that has been used as a hotbed of terrorism for years is cleared, and if the temple of international terror is destroyed.

Of course, when Qandil is taken, a multinational headquarters that has been striking the entire region, and the operation center of the U.S./Israel will also be destroyed. But the real operations will come after the elections. That is when Turkey’s voice will rise.