Addressing an event in the capital Ankara on Wednesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Türkiye cannot be leashed and “escape its fate.” “We will be in a much better place in the future. Türkiye is not just a place confined in an area of 782,000 square kilometers,” Erdoğan told a ceremony to award the country’s top scientists and prospective researchers.
“History has a mission designated for us and we have to act in line with this. Some people cannot grasp it. They cannot grasp what we are doing in Libya or Somalia, they are not unaware of our mission. Those unable to see the transformation of Türkiye cannot see the course of developments we went through. We won’t waste time with them and will focus on our goals. I believe you will undertake your responsibility in this sacred journey,” Erdoğan, who announced the “Century of Türkiye” last year, said.
Under the leadership of Erdoğan, Türkiye has made significant strides in all fields, from diplomacy to defense. It now relies less on other countries for its domestic needs, including unmanned aerial vehicles and weapons production. The president’s “locally made” initiative recently branched out into the automotive sector with the production of Togg cars.
In diplomacy, Türkiye adopted a more proactive approach, unlike governments preceding Erdoğan’s successive administrations in the past two decades. Most recently, it mediated between Ethiopia and Somalia. The opposition often criticizes Erdoğan’s diplomatic efforts although Ankara managed to balance its relations even with sides of conflicts, such as Russia and Ukraine. Critics also argue that Türkiye seeks to revive the spirit of the Ottoman Empire that once controlled vast territories stretching from eastern Balkans to present-day Syria. For Erdoğan, it is simply a revival of historical bonds with countries once ruled by Ottomans.
“You will be architects of our 2053 and 2071 vision,” Erdoğan told academics and scientists on Wednesday. The years are the anniversaries of two milestones in Turkish history: Istanbul’s conquest by Ottomans in 1453 and the Battle of Manzikert (Malazgirt) that cemented Turkish rule in the majority of present-day Türkiye in 1071.