Turkey continues to be one of the leading countries followed with admiration and fascination. As of late, many journalists across the world headed to Istanbul to inform the world on the killing of a prominent journalist. Turkish police revealed that a hit squad from Saudi Arabia killed the Saudi journalist at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and the Turkish judiciary is now calling them to account. While some "grand" states who claim to be the watchdog of press freedom have not displayed a proper stance against this atrocious murder so as not to disrupt their arm trade deals with Saudi Arabia, Turkey has been taking the necessary steps to identify everyone who had a role in the murder.

On the other hand, Turkey has witnessed a number of positive developments. Although groups who are disturbed by Turkey's growing power try to unsettle stability in Turkey, the country has overcome all these attacks.

With a new presidential system following elections this year after last year's referendum, Turkey provided full support to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to defeat such attacks. Six out of the 10 megaprojects marked in the world for the past decade have been by Turkey.

Implementing a slew of giant projects so far, including the Yavuz Sultan Selim Transcontinental Bridge, Marmaray, Eurasia Tunnel and Ovit Tunnel, Turkey yesterday inaugurated the first phase of Istanbul's new airport, which will be the world's largest airport. The new airport has been built by a consortium of five contractors - Limak, Kolin, Cengiz, Mapa and Kalyon - and is spread over an area of over 76 million square meters, with a capacity of 200 million passengers while providing employment opportunities for 225,000 people. After the airport starts operating, the consortium will annually pay 1.1 billion euro ($1.25 billion) rent, including value added tax, for 25 years, meaning that more than TL 176 billion will be added to the public purse.

The airport was inaugurated on Oct. 29, the anniversary of the declaration of the Turkish Republic, and many important guests around the world attended the ceremony. The inauguration was of historic importance since it explicates the vision of the new Turkey. As President Erdoğan puts it: "This is not only an airport, but a monument of victory."

While marking such giant projects, Turkey has also been maintaining its counterterror efforts since it is an exigency to end terror in the Middle East for the peace of humanity.

Particularly, the eradication of the outlawed PKK and its Syrian offshoot the People's Protection Units (YPG), which are unfortunately supported by several superpower countries, is one of the primary targets of Turkey. Having fought the most effective fight against Daesh among other countries, Turkey is now determined to liberate Syria from these terror groups.

Ending the Syrian civil war will be the greatest step in counterterror efforts. On Oct. 7, 2018, Turkey hosted a historic four-nation summit to introduce a political solution to the civil war. Turkish President Erdoğan, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron met in the summit and agreed on a series of critical decisions.

While summarizing the results of the summit, President Erdoğan said: "Another important subject we handled in the meeting was the terror threats based in Syria. We agreed on the necessity of increasing cooperation in this regard between the four countries and at the level of the international community. So far, hundreds of our citizens were injured and dozens were killed in the attacks organized by Daesh and the PYD [Democratic Union Party]. We launched Operation Euphrates Shield and the Operation Olive Branch to rule out both terror groups at their bases, and we marked great success by rendering a total of 7,500 Daesh and PYD militants ineffective while purging a 4,000 kilometer area from terror.

"We will never allow new impositions in the field on the pretext of anti-terror fight. We will continue to rule out the terror threats at their bases also in the east of Euphrates. The international community did not show enough care on the subject. Unfortunately, Syrian civilians and neighboring countries had to shoulder the burden of the problems stemming from the Syria crisis for a long time. And many countries could only grasp the gravity of the crisis when the effects of it reached their own borders. Now it is time to end this indifference. The tragedy will get even worse unless an initiative is taken."

The determination of a counterterror fight is clearly articulated in this statement.

Following this, the Turkish Armed Forces hit PYD and YPG deployments east of the Euphrates for the first time since the organization piled ammunition in the area. While the U.S. has remained a mere spectator to this, Turkey has started taking necessary steps since the country cannot afford to remain indifferent. Now in Europe, people are asking: "What does this operation mean? Will Turkey launch a land operation in Manbij?"

My answer to these questions is: Keep watching Turkey. You can be sure that the country will not neglect the steps required to be taken in a counterterror fight while taking giant economic steps. The continuation of terror in Syria is a major problem not only for Turkey's economy, but for all of Europe. Therefore, you should side with Turkey and pray for Turkish soldiers as they are fighting for humanity.