The West should not hope to “bring Turkey into line” with such pressures as “newspapers, caricatures, calling us a dictator, and so on, expecting that we would take a step back. They should not expect this. We know these [tactics] very well,” Erdoğan said.

After “incidents experienced over the past three years,” Turkey has changed its point of view of events and has drawn a new path for itself, he said, adding that Ankara’s “criteria is now to do whatever it takes for the future of our country and nation.”