Istanbul's third airport: Picture of a victory

Imagine an area of 76.5 million square meters, 1.4 million of which is closed space.

It has six separate runways, the capacity to hold 500 aircrafts and a car park that can accommodate 70,000 cars. Istanbul's third airport, the foundations of which were laid last weekend, will have this capacity. It is said that this will be one of the largest airports of the world and maybe even the world.

One should not regard the third airport only as a construction. We are talking about a great vision which will employ 120,000 staff annually, revive the region, construct highways and form a new transportation network. This is a picture that summarizes the determination of Turkey on its progressive adventure from the past to the future and the achievement of its targets.

At the same time, the actualization of this picture indicates that Prime Minister Erdoğan has won a major tussle. The process, which broke out with the Dec. 17 operation under the allegations of corruption, had the characteristics of a stumbling block for Turkey on its way to development and to achieve its growth target. Another similar operation with the aim of hampering Turkey's big projects was going to be conducted on December 25; however it was prevented with a last-minute intervention.

Foreseeing all these plots of designing the economy and politics, restraining Turkey through illegal wiretappings - most of which were fabricated - Erdoğan got all of them under control successfully. He went through an uphill struggle. The foundation of the third airport is a product of this arduous struggle. It is a manifestation which proves that Turkey is not the same country as it was in the past when democratically elected leaders were dethroned either by military or judicial coups. This picture also symbolizes that the vision which puts Turkey and other leading countries of the world in the same pot will continue.

We need to analyze this picture carefully.

If Erdoğan had not displayed a resolute and obdurate stance in the Dec. 17 process, today Turkey, let alone launching the third airport, would have succumbed to a large-scale illegal intelligence network. Through the illegal tape recordings which were declared by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) as a fabrication, Erdoğan and his cronies would have been outlawed and the government would have been toppled.

A structure would have kept the power permanently no matter who won in the elections, by settling down in the state. Moreover, this country would have become an outdoor prison. However, none of these speculations came true thanks to the determined and uncompromising attitude of the government, which embraces the whole world and becomes more integrated with the rest of the world each passing day.