Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a speech last month that no country could stand in Turkey’s way in the eastern Mediterranean, where it is currently involved in a dispute over energy resources.
In an Aug. 30 speech in Ankara that was uploaded to his official YouTube channel, Erdoğan said, “The real question is this: Can those who oppose us in the Mediterranean Sea and around it accept the risk of the same sacrifices? Do the people of Greece accept what will happen to them because of their greedy and incompetent leaders? Do the people of France accept the price they will pay because of their greedy and incompetent leaders? Are the brotherly peoples of some North African and countries in the Gulf content with their futures growing darker as a result of their greedy and incompetent leaders? The citizens of countries that are tens of thousands of kilometers away and are eyeing Turkey’s democracy, constitutional state and regional interests—do they realize that this process will turn around and harm them?”
The Turkish leader bragged that his country did not have an army, but was an army, and that its 83 million citizens would “run over all the dams that get in our way, like a flood.”
“When we combine our technological superiority, our fully developed human resources and our spiritual power … With Allah’s permission, there is no power that can stand in the way of this country,” he said, adding, “we say to our enemies: ‘Bring it on.’”
“Do the people of Greece accept what will happen to them because of their greedy and incompetent leaders? Do the people of France accept the price they will pay because of their greedy and incompetent leaders? Are the brotherly peoples of some North African and countries in the Gulf content with their futures growing darker as a result of their greedy and incompetent leaders? The citizens of countries that are tens of thousands of kilometers away and are eyeing Turkey’s democracy, constitutional state, and regional interests – do they realize that this process will turn around and harm them?”
The Turkish leader went on to state that his country had never been aggressive, and “was one of the rare peoples” not stained by colonialism.
“Certainly, our civilization is one of conquest, but our understanding of conquest is not based on taking control of underground and above-ground riches along with land. On the contrary, our understanding of conquest is first the conquest of hearts,” he said.
Rising anti-Turkish sentiment around the world and especially in Europe, he said, was “a sign of the fascism and animosity in the back of their minds.”