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In an October 2, 2020 speech given that was uploaded to the Turkish Presidency's official YouTube channel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, amid Turkey's ongoing military action in northern Syria, Libya, northern Iraq, its military support of Azerbaijan, and tension over drilling rights in the Eastern Mediterranean: "Now, we are a country with an essential place in the field and at the [negotiating] table." Of the Turkish occupation of portions of northern Syria, he said: "Today in Syria, we control an area of 8,200 square kilometers... Every place that constitutes a threat for our country is an area of activity for us." On the fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabagh, he said: "Inshallah, this struggle will continue until Nagorno-Karabagh is liberated from occupation."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: "The transformation that the world is experiencing with the effect of the coronavirus pandemic has become extraordinarily fast and visible. The struggle that our country has maintained, both at home and abroad, is not independent of this process of global change. Just as it was a century ago, half a century ago, others want Turkey to be excluded from the world order that they seek to establish. If you notice, almost all the crises that today occupy the world are taking place near our country. When you connect these points of crisis – from Syria to the Mediterranean Sea to the Caucasus – the picture that appears is an attempt to bring Turkey under and open siege.
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"To this day, we have done what we have said we would do. We have stood behind our statements. We have carried out whatever we committed to. In the face of this decisive, active and uncompromising stance, all of the actors in the international community were forced to include Turkey in regional and global equations. Now, we are a country with an essential place in the field and at the [negotiating] table. Certainly, there was a price for this. Sometimes with terror organizations, sometimes with economic traps, and sometimes with international pressure, they have tried to make us turn back on our path. With the help of Allah and the support of our nation – praise be to Allah – we have not and shall not turn back on our path.
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"Today in Syria, we control and area of 8,200 square kilometers. We did not do this arbitrarily. It was not for fun. We did it only to take control of the epicenter of the attacks that have taken place from there. Those who still seek to threaten our country by forming islets of terror from Syrian soil should see by now that there is no chance that this plot will succeed. Every place that constitutes a threat to our country is an area of activity for us. They wanted to play a similar game in the Mediterranean Sea. After the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus' territorial waters, as a result of the agreement that we reached with Libya, we turned an important part of the Mediterranean Sea into an area of legitimate activity for us."
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