Sometimes we struggle to shoulder the burden of both history and the region. The responsibility with which a religion, a country, a civilization, an identity burdens a nation is excruciating.

This heavy burden sometimes revives, strengthens and leads us to victory. There are also times it crushes us and leaves us face-to-face with destruction. So much so that we are within an inch of being excluded from history. However, after every collapse, we rise again, we accumulate strength, embrace those claims again, and generally get back up with the power of that claim.

We go through extremely challenging tests and pay heavy prices. We have great claims, great causes, as well as major showdowns. We have great fights. We do not back away from conflict, we do not like to keep our distance, and we never say “We don’t care.”

We have produced great heroes, great leaders on this path. The mass sacrifices that rise them on shoulders is tear-jerking. And those heroes and leaders, and those close to them, the people that give them strength and encouragement walk along a path of divine fate. They are aware of everything. They never give up, they never accept defeat.

Most of the time these are not things we signed up for. They are our destiny. We cannot escape it. We accumulate power for this aim and focus our strength in this area. We try to stand on our feet. We try to keep not just ourselves but our region and everybody with whom we have a sincere connection standing on their feet.

The region, political gene, historical memory assigns us an identity, a task that passes on from generation to generation; it assigns us a responsibility. This is our political mind, the path we are marching on. This is our personality, our understanding. This is our cultural identity and history. This is a regional belonging.

This is how this nation, this country shouldered such a responsibility once more a century later. That fate came and found us again. That claim, that responsibility, that political gene was placed in front of us again.

We are looking at the world, at our region, at the attacks that target our country. We see that we have no luxury to escape this fate. We see that whatever we upheld in the west, the east, the south, is turning into a fate for us again, as an identity and responsibility that belongs to us.

This is the sort of responsibility, noble duty Turkey is striving for. It is actually standing in the same place, speaking from the same position, and looking from the same position within itself, in its own region, in every corner of the world. There is nobody other than us to shoulder our region's heritage of the last millennium. Just as there was nobody else during the last millennium, it will continue to be that way.

This is the reason behind the attacks we have been encountering in Turkey for 15 years, the division and showdowns we have been experiencing with the West as we become stronger; this is the reason behind the "foreigners" in our region standing against us every time we rise from the ashes, and the reason that "native invaders" reorganized again and again in different formats.

In the 20th century, they used to say "Islam’s bloody borders." Kashmir, Palestine, East Turkestan, East Africa were all such conflict areas. The Muslim region's outer border line was woven with conflicts.

They said, "We are going to carry war to the heart of Islam, Muslims will fight among themselves." They largely succeeded too. Though foreign invasions, they dragged us into ethnic conflicts shaped with attacks, sectarian fights, and strict power battles.

Now they are trying something else. They are trying to surround Islam and the Muslim region with an enemy wall, and force Muslims into a state of conflict with all civilizations.

They are spreading the West's centuries-old war throughout the world. They are spreading Israel's showdown for existence throughout the world. They are activating the Buddhist and Hindu world against Islam.

Following the plan that "Muslims are going to fight among themselves," they are working on the "Islam is in conflict with all civilizations" plan. This is an operation to siege, to surround us from the west, south and east. This is a project to build a "common enemy" in humanity's mind.

We are facing a great threat. Step-by-step, they are erecting thick walls around us. They are progressing step-by-step on the path to declare Muslims a global threat, to turn Muslims into humanity's common problem.

If it continues this way, they are going to form serious areas of conflict between China, India and the Muslim world. That is when the West's attacks on the Muslim world, and of course on Turkey, are going to be aggravated.

Turkey is the sole country in the world to stand tall, accumulate power, show extraordinary resistance, and determine a direction. This is the responsibility that history, that the region has put on our shoulders. This is what we call the great fight, the historical showdown. This is the fate we can never escape.

While this is the situation, it is normal that there will be those wanting to run from the burden of history, escape the responsibility of the region and this political gene. It is normal for there to be those who are tired of the struggle, who find it tough and do not want to pay a price. But for them to hide these under different excuses, their drifting off to other agendas, becoming involved in other showdowns is not normal. This is a horrific political blindness. It is to run from the fight that has been put up for centuries. It is abandoning Turkey.

Running from the fight of centuries, secretly taking a stance against it, paving the way to covert "inside" operations through petty plans for personal gain, power plans, anger, grudges, and certain complaints, is a horrific mistake. It is not understanding the world, the region and Turkey of today. And for some, it is conscious treachery.

The leaders, heroes and opinion leaders of this country have this foresight and power, and will continue on the path. The great march will continue; Turkey's resistance will continue. Our national and political identity will never run from the responsibility that history and the region has placed over its shoulders.

This is the greatest fight and cause we have been continuing for centuries. Nobody can hide this truth through other statements, truths, excuses or their innocent roles.

Everybody should take a good look once more at where they stand. Everybody should take a good look once more at what their cause is. Everybody should look once more to what extent they “stand by Turkey.”