The Damascus administration’s attack in Idlib targeting our troops has the potential to alter the trajectory of the Syrian war because this is the first time they directly targeted Turkish troops.

For the first time, the Damascus administration intentionally, purposely and knowingly attacked Turkey so directly. This is the first time after the downing of our aircraft in the Mediterranean that we encountered such an open attitude.

Those who attacked us in northern Syria through the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), through Daesh, tested Turkey in Idlib. Those who previously tested us in the country’s north through the PKK and Daesh are, this time around, testing us through armed forces of the Damascus administration.

As a matter of fact, our troops on duty in the region within the context of the tripartite deal between Turkey, Russia and Iran, encountered the joint betrayal of these countries. This is certainly no “car accident,” and it will not be considered as such.

Striking Idlib for weeks, Russia and Iran damaged the conditions they were signatories of, and put Turkey, which has been adhering to the obligations of the deal, through a painful experience. The Astana and Sochi processes were hope for the whole region but have been seriously weakened by Russia and Iran, two of the three architects of this process.

The Syria issue is now, beyond a war, a regional, in fact, a global problem. Nobody cares about what the people of Syria want anymore. Unfortunately, this is where the biggest mistake is made.

One-third of the population, perhaps even more, has been exiled, is stateless. For the current Damascus administration, they are masses that need to be destroyed, exiled from Syrian territory. That is exactly what it is doing. It displaced millions of people and killed hundreds of thousands of others.

It is purging the country, those lands. It is preparing the country for the expansion of Israel. In the north, Arabs have been exiled from their lands throughout the Turkish border, with demographic arrangements already made. The population in important cities of the country are also being cleared. We should perhaps comprehend the start of the Syrian war in accordance with this evacuation program.

Immediately after the Idlib attack, groups in Turkey that “never feel a belonging to Turkey,” started to talk about “Syria’s territorial integrity.” According to them, the Damascus administration’s attack on Turkish troops is legitimate! They are on Syrian land and Turkey should withdraw. This is what the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and its circle largely think.

So, let us ask: “Which Syria?” “What and who is it that you call Syria?” Is it Bashar Assad and his family? Around Latakia? What do the locals, the people of Aleppo, Hama and other cities say about this? Is anybody asking what millions of Syrians think, what the majority of the country’s population thinks?

Those that established an “inside front” are supposedly indirectly calling Turkey an “invader.” They say this without any shame. What is Russia doing there? What is Iran doing there? What is the U.S. doing there? Why do you not call them invaders?

Let us see you say “Iran is an invader in Syria”! What are tens of thousands of armed Iranian forces doing in Syria? Was Syria not an independent state!

Did the Damascus administration that struck Turkish troops in Idlib conduct a single attack on Israel? Did it ever attack U.S. troops? Are they not foreign forces? The U.S. has a large portion of the country under occupation. Israel attacks Syria every morning. Did you ever hear of a single response?

Let us say the Damascus regime does not say anything. Did you hear a single peep from those that established an inside front? If they could, they would go to Idlib, to Afrin, to Azaz and hunt down Turkish troops.

There is no such thing left as Syria. Turkey’s greatest threat is posed from this country. Hence, Turkey is the country that has the most legitimate right to defense. The hundreds-of-kilometers-long border has been transferred to terrorist organizations and all they do is attack this country.

So, what, is this country not going to defend itself?

Should they come and attack as they please?

Is this what you wanted?

We are defending Syria’s territorial integrity but at the same time, we are also defending the people of Syria. We are defending Syria and the people of Syria, not a regime that has waged war on two-thirds of its population, not the Duchy of Damascus, not the Latakia minority government.

We do not consider a national border and Syrian state rejected by two-thirds of the Syrian nation as legitimate. If we are to call it the Syrian state, if we are going to talk of a presence called Syria, if we are going to protect it, then millions of people need to return to their country, join the administration, while the Assad family and his intelligence gang’s privilege needs to end.

Unfortunately you have left nothing of Syria.

You are simply trying to fool everybody that the Duchy of Damascus and the Latakia minority government are Syria. According to them, the Syrian people have no land. Both the country and the people, they are all the property of that small circle. There is no such thing as the Syrian army. The Latakia government that is not representative of the Syrian people has armed forces.

We are defending Syria and will continue to do so.

Nobody should dare teach Turkey a lesson while the U.S., Russia, Israel and Iran are in the picture.

Nobody should dare attack this country from the “inside front.”