We are now in the period of making grand statements, standing out with great claims, setting off with great steps, and making preparations based on great showdowns.

We are in a time of great change, a major establishment. A founding generation, a strong history, a legacy of civilization, a history-maker political gene, and a conscientiousness of building a geography has now taken action.

A new rising wave has started through Turkey. Anatolia, like it did many times before in a thousand years of history, is hosting a new revival, and the turn of history.

Whenever these lands starts to resist, so does the region. Whenever it takes action, the entire region takes action. Whenever it starts a rising period, the region’s map is reformed.

Whenever this land launches a great freedom struggle, all countries, all communities from North Africa to Far East Asia take action. A new political language, a new stance shakes the world. It changes history and turns power maps upside down.

When we collapse the region will collapse, the world will shake. As was the case in our collapse a century ago… When we rise, the Earth’s map will change, a force will spread through the entire region in waves.

Just like we experienced today, a century after the great collapse... Both our fall and rise in this region overturned the maps for a thousand years; and they have all had a global effect. This is how the Ottoman’s rise was, the Seljuk’s rise was, this is how the Turkish Republic was established.

We have always been a strong resistance at reckonings of civilization, of historic claims; at the crossroads of historic reckonings, we were the ones who struggled, we never had an easy victory, we never tried to remain standing by begging, we never asked for forgiveness on our knees, and we never chose to seek refuge in others.

Our victories were extremely arduous, our disappointments grave; we were never an ordinary nation. The burden on our shoulders has always been heavy, and our compassion and responsibilities have always been plenty.

We never thought short-term, and we never considered about ourselves alone. We have always been a great traveler of history, the region and of civilization. We threw ourselves forward many times for the oppressed, we mobilized the whole country and state for justice. We traveled continents, we always sought, we always ran, but we never stopped.

We revived the moment they said, “They are finished”; we always made fresh starts the moment they said, “They are done”; we formed new chains of resistance even in cases where the region was destroyed, in the period of great depressions. Humble efforts went beyond states and spread through continents.

We showed extraordinary compassion and mercy to those that we consider close to us, those we know, those we consider one of us, but we were ruthless toward those who targeted us, saw us as the enemy, those who came from outside the region, those who brought the identity of invasion and colonialism to our homes. This is why all the great struggles of the millennium are global, this is why it has caused tremors and changes much beyond Anatolia.

Our reactions regarding our region have been aimed at unification and to produce a more consolidated regional force. We did not take ethnic identity, sectarian identity, and smaller-scale identities into consideration. We always invested in an identity of superior solidarity adjusted for the great struggle. We always united the region’s forces to fight against foreign ones.

We are a nation that has suffered great sorrows… We did not cry as we gave hundreds of thousands of martyrs, as we encountered mass slaughters and massacres, we did not cry as we experienced the tragedy of hundreds of thousands who flocked from the Caucasus to Anatolia to seek refuge.

Let alone crying, we did not tell anyone, we did not complain or whine, we did not expect anybody to show compassion to our sorrows. We hid them, we did not even want to discuss them, let alone complain. Great nations would have great struggles. We knew that they would have great sorrows as they do great victories.

That day has come.

Today is the day!

In our last great collapse, when the Ottoman was shredded into pieces and region was starting to be pillaged, when the despair of, “This is now eternally over,” spread through the Muslim world, when the invaders were trampling over our sacred values and our honor, we were preparing, we were keeping silent, but secretly, we always knew that time would come again. We waited for a century for it to come, we strived to discard our handcuffs, and we made secret preparations for a century.

And that time has now come. It is today. This is the time that history turns again. This is the period the people have secretly been yearning for. This is the time we learn to hold our heads high, to keep our feet firmly grounded, and to look at the region and the world from these lands.

This is the time we rediscover Baghdad’s pain, Damascus’s desperation, Skopje’s yearning, Istanbul’s pride, and the consciousness of the cities that are the foundations of our civilization.

Because history has turned, we are now in the period of the “Third Great Rise.” The march and struggle of the homeland, of the consciousness of the regional memory have started. After the June 24 elections, we are in the final stage of that power rise that they have been trying to prevent for 15 years, that they have been trying to stop with relentless attacks for the last five years.

The leader, cadre, societal support, past and future plans for this great struggle are all extremely clear. There is no longer any chance of stopping it with foreign intervention and internal resistance.

Thus, from now on, personal fights, petty plans, struggles for gains, resentments have no meaning or value. Anyone who supports this struggle is as much a hero of the rising history. The place of anyone who tries to sabotage this march is in the wrong, dark pages of history; their end is one of shame, it’s sinking into oblivion.

Regardless of who you are, where you are and where you stand, lay claim to great statements, big claims, and the great march. Do not forget, this is how we became the Seljuks, the Ottomans; this is how we traveled continents, this is how we became a great nation.

We are going to be so once again. Because history, identity and our responsibilities have all settled in their own place now. There will be no turning back, be prepared for this!