President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey could deploy troops to Libya. This statement is bound to cause serious tremors in every country’s position in the Mediterranean.

This announcement that followed the game-changing Turkey-Libya deal, which altered the Mediterranean map and led to changes in every country’s surface area, is opening up a new stage in the power struggle in the Mediterranean.

Erdoğan said: “With this deal, Turkey used its rights that stem from international law. If Libya invites Turkey, of course, as per the deal, Turkey has the right to go to Libya. There are steps we need to take concerning sending troops abroad. We are ready to provide every support necessary to Libya.”

Now, after Syria, Turkey is going to send troops to Libya as well. The official Libyan government’s call is essential. Looking at the deal, it seems this call will be made. So, what was the deal?

Almost all EU countries, primarily Greece, the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus (GCASC), France, as well as Israel, the U.S., Egypt and, along with them, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) started a plan to carve up Mediterranean energy resources among themselves.

As they were doing so, they habitually ignored Turkey. There was an existing, conventional perception of the Mediterranean; based on this, they planned to first corner Turkey in terms of security, then persuade it with respect to the division of resources, and finally silence it.

Turkey resisted even though it was on its own. As a matter of fact, it even challenged them. It sailed to the Mediterranean with drillships. It launched its own explorations. While it did this, it conducted its activities according to its own map, not theirs.

With its fleet, Turkey proved that it will never bow down to any sort of bullying. This attitude surprised them. Indeed, they were not expecting a resistance to this extent; they thought they were going to soften up Turkey in some way and frighten it with pressure from their coalition.

Turkey foiled the game by resisting and challenging them. Yet this was not all; it signed an Exclusive Economic Zone Agreement with the official government of Libya. Turkey and Libya became neighbors, border countries via the sea.

This deal enlarged both Turkey and Libya’s surface areas. It completely changed the map of the Mediterranean. There is no longer any room for a third country to claim rights in the joint zone declared by the two countries.

Additionally, the deal divided the Mediterranean in half, with a line between Greece and the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus (GCASC), and established the Turkey front in the West, on its joint border with Libya.

The Turkey-Libya deal not only ruined all their games, but it also revealed that the agreements struck amongst themselves were, in fact, problematic. They had all deceived one another.

The same problem was apparent in deals between Israel and the GCASC and Greece, the deals between Israel and Egypt, and Egypt and Greece. They had stolen each other’s waters. Now, they are re-doing the deals signed amongst themselves or canceling them.

The eight-year preparations east of the Euphrates River in Syria collapsed in nine days. Everything they prepared in the Mediterranean for the last decade was destroyed in a day. Hence, they are supporting a terrorist organization they had established with the terrorist Khalifa Haftar, against the legitimate government of Libya – also recognized by the UN – and are striving to divide Libya.

The U.S., European countries, Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE are all lined up behind a terrorist organization.

The “terror corridor” spanning the Iranian border and the Mediterranean was, as a matter of fact, not limited to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). It was a siege, a multinational front. The Euphrates Shield, Afrin and Peace Spring operations all served to close its doors to the East and West, and cracked it down the middle.

The plan to corner and siege us from the East Mediterranean was destroyed with the Libya deal. Both of these are as important as Turkey’s fight for independence.

Now, we have seen that Turkey’s borders do not consist of its land alone. Our perception of the homeland, country has undergone a radical change. We are back to our World War I claims. We said we would never forgot anything, that we will not bow down to any force.

This agreement with Libya has led to signs of striking similar deals with other Mediterranean countries such as Egypt. This is extremely important and necessary. Every deal in this direction is in Turkey’s interest and will be mutually beneficial. The riches in the vicinity belong to regional countries . Similarly, the map belongs to us and the countries in the region – they do not belong to Europe or the U.S.

Turkey is making major geopolitical moves. We know that if we have no presence in the Balkans, in North Africa, the Caucasus, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, we cannot stake a claim in Anatolia; we cannot protect Istanbul. This is the way it is. This is the magnitude of the claims and showdowns. This is how great Turkey is.

Yes, Barbaros Pasha, the first admiral of the Ottoman navy, is back again in the Mediterranean after 473 years, and a great deal is going to change. This will happen despite all efforts by the “tutelage forces” within the country trying to prevent these changes.

They have now been assigned to stop “Canal Istanbul.” Take note that those opposing Canal Istanbul are “tutelage extensions.” We will see together all the deficiencies of the “lobby to keep the Montreux Convention valid,” which restricts our sovereignty rights in the straits.

The first war fought by Turkey’s founding father Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the Italo-Turkish War (1911-1912).

Those who might say, “What business do we have in Libya?” should at least look at Atatürk’s example.