The last four years of the 15 ruled by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) have been turbulent and unsettled. Yet, during the AK Party's first years in political power, the government's decisive democratic reforms led to unprecedented growth in the economy. Backed by its political and economic strength, the AK Party concentrated on the state's reconciliation with Turkey's historical identities. Disgraced by the colonial empirical discourse, Turkey's Ottoman and Seljuk legacy was reinstated and embraced. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the British colonial empire not only occupied the lands of Muslim countries, but also disgraced their religion, history, culture and identity. Radically adopting westernism, the Turkish intellectual imitated the orientalism of the colonizers by disgracing the identity and culture of its own people, and thus became a missionary caste that poses itself higher than the people.

When the new Republic rose from the ashes of the fallen empire, Turkey was a poor country with a reduced population of 13 million squeezed into one-tenth of the Ottoman lands and a narrowed economy. Once an ally of Germany in World War I, Turkey was then deprived of its industry. Only after the transition to a multi-party system in the 1950s was Turkey's economic and demographic development revitalized.

Against all odds, Turkey has come out of the existential crisis stronger. With a population of almost 80 million, a growing economy comparative to the developed G20 countries, and an advanced and developing industry, Turkey continues to shine in the region. The global colonial empire never expected or wanted Turkey to have such a strong economy and national identity. Yet, they have to be mature enough to accept the things that they cannot change.

Occupying or controlling countries through an economic and cultural hegemony, British colonialism has paradigmatically changed its shape and means in the last century. Led by the United States on one hand and Germany on the other, the present global colonialism is aimed at repressing Turkey's growth, which triggered the launch of the Arab Spring. Many believed that the Barack Obama administration and Germany were behind the Gülenist Terror Group's (FETÖ) failed coup d'état under the direction of Fetullah Gülen.

A total of three failed coup d'états have been attempted to undermine the successive electoral successes of the AK Party, whose tension with the European Union and the Obama administration escalated from time to time. Putting those calamities behind them through the popular support acquired in the last referendum, the AK Party has initiated a new political phase of prudence. When the turbulent relations between Turkey and the EU and the U.S. are considered, we become aware of the realization of a "silent revolution."

The AK Party's silent revolution refers to the revitalization of Turkey's political, economic and cultural power through which Turkey has become an equal, not an inferior, of the leading Western states. During his recent U.S. visit, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed his agreements and disagreements with the U.S. administration and openly protested its cooperation with the PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the Democratic Union Party (PYD). Yet, Turkey's willingness to improve its relations with the U.S. and the European countries through diplomatic channels was strictly emphasized.

In a word, Turkey can and must improve its relations with the West by holding onto its own national identity and roots, and by strengthening its economic and democratic structure. After two centuries of repression, Turkey has finally reinstated its self-confidence under the leadership of a charismatic leader. Therefore, as the old saying goes: "What goes around comes around." "Everything turns back to its own self."