Turkey spoiled a huge plan with the Afrin operation. It destroyed and negated a multinational scenario, a major map design and the plans to divide four countries at once. This is the first important geopolitical move of the 21st century in terms of Turkey.

It has untied a knot through Syria, it has ruined the plans for a foreign garrison aimed at the whole region, it has shown the world that you cannot build an army through terror and that Syria cannot be divided.

What’s most important is that the plans of those who have turned toward Turkey, who are getting ready to open the “Turkey Front,” who are making plans to move the war into Turkey, who are doing this through terrorist organizations, but who are also making total attack plans behind all this, are destroyed.

Turkey did not fight against terror in Afrin. It did not fight against a terrorist organization. It wasn’t the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) or its Syrian affiliate, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) that we were facing. We need to comprehend this truth now. We need to know that there is no longer a term as “fighting terror.” We need to know that all this is a war now, that it is a major showdown which includes many states. It wasn’t a terrorist organization fighting against us in Afrin, but the U.S. military forces. It was the U.K. mind. It was the Israeli aggression. It was the stupidity of some Arab countries.

I was in Afrin on March 19, one day after it was liberated. I passed Jindaris. I saw the traces of clashes there. I saw the traces of clashes at the entrance of Afrin. I saw that there was no harm to any building in the city. I saw the self-sacrificing efforts, extremely careful operations of the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF), Free Syrian Army (FSA) groups and the personnel of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

I saw the tunnels, blockhouses, concrete barriers on the roadsides, at the road entrances. I saw the ammunition depots. I saw millions of bullets, shells and missiles. Weapons, ammunition planned entirely according to NATO standards, made with U.S. engineering are not a terror issue, I saw all this. I already knew, but I saw it with my eyes for once.

There was an alliance power against us, a U.S. power and a Western multinational front. These preparations were not to keep the PKK standing nor to defend Afrin. Preparations were made entirely for the attacks that would be launched against Turkey in the future.

Someone was sieging Turkey from the south, encircling us from our entire southern border from the Mediterranean to the Iranian border. Once this siege was complete, they were going to plan a new zone on Turkey’s side of the border from the Iranian border to Mersin. That is when the Turkey front was going to be opened. The war was going to be moved into Anatolia.

Turkey has taken a step as important as the War of Independence with the Afrin operation. It started a spectacular homeland defense and drowned a new invasion operation before it started. It stood up against those who designed the entire region with World War I, designing the region once more in the 21st century, and placed “a different map” against the map drafts they have been passing around from table to table.

This is a major showdown, a “relentless resistance.” This is Turkey’s new war of independence; it is the beginning of the new rising history. The Mediterranean gates of the terror corridor, of the foreign garrison map have been shut. Turkey is now going to turn toward the east, to Manbij and the east of the Euphrates. The U.S. and its terrorist partners have been defeated in Afrin; this is their third defeat after July 15.

What’s certain is that whatever they do, the U.S. will not be able to hold on in the east of the Euphrates as well. Its entire northern area until Iran, such as Ayn al-Arab, Tal Abyad, Hasakah and Sinjar will be purged. Terror elements will be eliminated. Whoever is with them will also be eliminated.

The north of the Aleppo-Mosul line is the strategic security line for Turkey. Every development on the north of this line interests us, every foreign element is a threat to us and every terrorist organization disturbs us. Hence, Turkey has all kinds of operational rights in this entire zone for our country’s security.

Therefore, the intervention will not stop in Afrin – it cannot stop. It has to continue until the Iranian border. Because such a major threat cannot be left as is; it must be completely destroyed. Nobody should be worried, Turkey has enough strength to achieve this; no foreign force will be able to show any resistance against Turkey in this region.

Extraordinary efforts will be made both internally and externally to continue the operations. Scenarios will be played out, sabotages will be made, wanting to restrain Turkey. But the state’s national mind will no longer be fooled by these operations.

The era of deceiving through the U.S. is over. The era of deceiving through Europe is over. The era of deceiving through the PKK with the reconciliation process is over. The coalition period in Syria is over; the period of conspiring against Turkey through Syria is over. Our strategic goal is the zone spanning from the Mediterranean to Iran.

It is to turn this zone, which is prepared to siege Turkey from the south, into a “Turkey shield.” Afrin being liberated on the anniversary of the Çanakkale victory, on March 18, is the expression of this strategic mind; it is bringing that deep historical experience, that political genetic to today.

I think we need to focus on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s words and statements regarding what will happen in the region from now on. That is where the truth is. The plan to be made, the struggle to be put up and the goal to be reached are in those statements. Because those statements are those that have been made ever since Malazgirt, ever since Çanakkale. It is such a political language. In his speech after Afrin too, this language, this content, this historical depth, shows where today’s Turkey will reach.

Afrin was a major response given to all of the West’s invasion projects. We are going to continue to give them similar answers. We are going to do it in Manbij, in Sinjar, and in Qandil. We are going to show those who are making operations to shrink Turkey, how Turkey is growing; we are going to show them it is impossible to twist this arm.

Because this is a century-old showdown. It is a “Relentless Resistance.” It is the awakening of Anatolia and its rise. This is the construction of a region. It is a homeland defense. The world’s greatest powers, the countries hiding behind the terrorist organization have been defeated in Afrin.

Victory will continue for us, defeat for them.